The white demon
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: naruto has been murdered by the akatsuki.Kakashi,Shino,hinata,kiba,sakura,sai,yamoto,shizune,lee and tenten go back to the beginging to save their friend,but what happens when the person they try to save isn't naruto? everyone has secrets.fem naru/kakashi
1. Chapter 1

All was quiet in the wood house that Yamoto's jutsu had created for the sealing team, and team Kakashi several days ago when the ninja's had first received their orders.

It had been almost three days since Naruto had been separated from the two teams. Almost three days of searching, since the evening when Sai had let it slip that the air headed blond was the container for the nine tailed demon that had attacked and almost completely destroyed the leaf village. And many of the kids were starting to doubt that Naruto was ever coming back. Shizune already doubted the blonds unending ability to get in and out of really sticky situations with out suffering too much damage. Something that never ceased to dumb found and shock Kakashi, and Sakura to the point of insanity.

As Shizune, Hinata and Kakashi returned to the house after another eight hour search, again without finding hide nor hair of Naruto anywhere, Shizune, Hinata, and yes even he was starting to doubt that the blond was still alive. There was only so many things that could keep their favorite kid from showing up with in the search area; after so many hours.

1) Naruto had gone rouge out of some misplaced sense of fear and desperation since the rest of the kids on the two teams now knew that he was the nine tailed container, thanks entirely to Sai's slip up.

2) He had been injured when the three tailed biijuu had attacked them and separated everyone.

3) He had been attacked by Orochimaru's minions, and was at this very moment either being tortured, or was being experimented on.

4) The three tails had eaten him. Something that was entirely plausible in Kakashi's mind.

5) Naruto had some how met with an untimely end and his broken body was currently being picked apart by animals.

Something that everyone in both teams were beginning to fear.

Kakashi knew the kid better than most of the people in the room, and he knew that Naruto wouldn't simply vanish without a damn good reason. They hadn't found his headband or anything else indicating that he had gone rouge and run away, nor had the tracking dogs that he had summoned been able to pick up the boy's scent. To say that it was odd would be the understatement of the century.

A person didn't simply vanish into thin air like fucking Houdini it just wasn't done.

_Where could he be?_ Kakashi wondered as Sakura, Lee, Kiba, Ino, Sai, Yamoto, Shino, and Tenten all looked at the three expectantly. Sakura looked at him; her eyes were the only thing telling him just how hopeful she was that they had found the boy. He looked away only long enough for her to start sobbing before Ino reached out and wrapped her arms around her best friend and tried to tell her that they would find Naruto soon.

The other kids all looked at each other and seemed to come to the same conclusion. Something terrible had happened to Naruto. And the guilt was nearly unbearable. It was like a living breathing entity that hovered over them, sucking all the air out of the room.

Yukimaru lay on the floor in the corner listening to the faint sounds, and whispers around him.

So these people were friends with _that _person. And Uzumaki-kun was missing. Well okay the kid wasn't exactly missing.

He had died only a few hours ago after engaging in a fight with several Akastsuki members. But he hadn't died alone; he had taken the bastards with him when he had self destructed. The reason that the leaf nins hadn't found his remains was because he had died at least ten miles from their base camp.

They had been covering the lake and five miles beyond it. If they would branch out just a bit they would come across what was left of the tip of an index finger, three teeth, a few strands of hair, and a charred navy blue and crimson stained piece of cloth.

It was sad really. Naruto wasn't supposed to die for a long, long time. He certainly wasn't supposed to die in such a horrific way. Naruto Uzumaki had been born with a blessed fate, and had been cursed by his own father to suffer for sins that he had had nothing to do with.

He had been destined to bring about a new world order.

A thousand years of peace, in a world that no longer needed shinobi.

He had been destined to rule not just the leaf village but also the other six great shinobi nations. And he had been meant to do it without so much as raising his hand in violence or declaring war on them. _A truly remarkable person. _There would never be another that could do the same things that Naruto had been meant to do.

_I suppose that someone should tell them. _Yukimaru thought as he sighed loud enough to draw the attention of the others in the room as he sat up.

Sometimes he really hated being connected to the three tailed demon. He hated telling people that their loved ones were gone. But what he hated knowing the most was that Naruto had gone after the Akutsuki alone because he had been aware of what was going to happen next. The Akutsuki would annihilate the leaf village in the next month. Naruto had known that and had decided to stop the tragedy from happening at its source.

Like Yukimaru; Naruto had also seen the fate of the people around him and he hadn't liked what he had seen.

However unlike Yukimaru; Naruto's abilities had run much deeper, than merely seeing the future. The kid could willfully tap into any power that the nine tails had possessed without letting the demon take control. He only acted like the demon took control from time to time because he knew that everyone would fear him all that much more if they knew the truth.

A truly clever thing to do.

But it hadn't saved him in the end. "Yukimaru, how are you feeling?" The girl with the pink hair asked as she wiped the tears from her face and suddenly seemed to have calmed herself down enough to do her job. He gritted his teeth hard enough for his jaw to ache before answering her. "Fine. You still haven't found Uzumaki-kun." there was a brief flicker of pain in her eyes before she dropped to her knees next to his cot and gave him a forced smile.

"No, but we will. And he'll be really happy that your okay now. He was very worried about you." Sakura said as she put her hand on his head and ruffled his long brown hair affectionately.

Shit, he didn't want to do this. He didn't want to tell her or the others that the blond would never be coming back. But the deserved to know that their friend was gone for good. They also deserved to know that Naruto hadn't died easy.

_All to protect a lesser spieces. _It was their fault that he was dead and Yukimaru had every intention of telling this.

"Naruto won't be coming back." he said calmly while he silently seethed inside. Shizune, Sakura, Kakashi, and the others were suddenly surrounding him. The curious and angry expressions on their faces almost had him afraid for his life.

"What do you mean?" Kakashi growled as he knelt next to the kid; who suddenly for some odd reason seemed to know something that they didn't. It made him curious.

Yukimaru sighed and stood slowly because he was still suffering from chakra depletion. He really didn't want to talk about what he had seen. So he would simply show them instead. "All of you sit down facing the wall over there. I'll show you what I know." Yukimaru said as he walked to the far wall and sat down facing the opposite wall, and waited for the leaf nins to stop giving him funny looks before they complied. It took less than five minutes for everyone to do as he had asked of them.

Some sat on one side of him, and the others on the other side. _Here we go._ Yukimaru thought as he waved his small hand and the whole room which had been full of sunlight only seconds before became completely dark except for the wall that they were looking at. It reminded them of a movie theater. Except that they were suddenly staring at an image of Naruto running through the surrounding forest at break neck speed.

_The blond ran in a haphazard manner through the trees, the occasional tree branch or thorn bush tearing at his clothes and face as he ran, he looked behind him and narrowed his eyes. The figures behind him were blurry at first, but there was one thing that could be seen. The long black cloaks with crimson red clouds. And the figures were gaining ground fast. Seven. There were seven of them and all of them were trying to catch him. His heart thudded painfully in his chest as he ran farther away from the lake, away from his friends, away from the ones who would end up dying to save him. Where the hell did all of them come from? He had only been facing three of them a few minutes ago and now there were seven! _

"_Since when did those losers have a fucking buddy system with seven buddies?" The blond snarled as kunai were thrown at him in an effort to slow him down. _

_Two struck him in his left shoulder, as another hit him in the back of the leg where his knee was located and his leg gave out and sent him crashing to the ground face first. "Ha! Got you now brat!" one of the men yelled as Naruto reached for his weapons pouch. They didn't have him. Not yet anyways. _

Three days of torture and fighting was show to the nins in the room in thirty minutes, the last image of Naruto shown was one of the Akatsuki men trying to get the blond to tell him where his friends were. The blond smiled at the man as he coughed up blood and said his last words in a sing song voice, "I'll never tell."

As his body started to glow and everything went up in white light that could be seen for miles. After the light faded all that was left was a crater and flames. Everyone in the room remained silent for several seconds before all hell broke loose.

"It's a lie! You little monster, how dare you show us something so morbid! Naruto is alive! I'll fucking kill you, you damn brat." Sakura screamed as she tried to put a kunai through Yukimaru's neck, as Kakashi and several others all wrestled with the pink haired nightmare.

Yukimaru had the insane urge to commit murder.

How dare she call him a monster!

How many times had Naruto called for help as a child and been ignored by her and others in the room? How many times had he been dragged into dark alleys and called out to them by name and still been ignored!

How many times had Naruto had his throat slit and been left for dead because no one had thought that his life meant anything?

How many times had he been attacked by perverts, and raped? And turned up at one of their homes wanting to confide in someone and been insulted and attacked by the one he had wanted, no needed help from.

Too many times. Far too many to count.

And yet he had died trying to keep them safe. They were fucking ingrates! Everyone in the room had all suddenly frozen and were looking at him like he had two heads, as his face paled. Oh god, had he just yelled that shit out loud?

Sakura's kunai slipped from her fingers and clattered to the floor, her angry face going blank as Yukimaru tried to recall what he had just said.

Oh man, today just wasn't his day.

No one in the leaf village had been aware of the extent of the abuse Naruto had suffered except for the ones responsible for said abuse, and now thanks to his preteen hormones the cat was out of the bloody bag. "How do we know you're not just making things up? How do we know that Naruto really suffered those things?" Sakura asked with a pained expression on her face.

Yukimaru was in her face in an instant, his brown eyes flashing to a glowing pale green. "I am connected to the tree tailed demon. I know what it knows. I see what it see's. I see the fates of all things. I see your fate, I see their fate, and now that Naruto is gone none of you have a chance in hell of living very much longer. Konoha will fall. And you will all die. Naruto was your best and only chance of survival, and he's gone." He hissed as he backed away from her, his contempt for her and everyone else showing plainly on his face.

"Why did he do it?" Lee asked as tears rolled down his face.

Naruto had been one of his best friends, and he wanted to know why he had died. No he needed to know.

Yukimaru sighed felling suddenly very tired. "Because he could see things too. He saw what was going to happen, to all of you and your village, and he was trying to stop it at its source. He wanted all of you to live, and be happy even if he couldn't. He was just that kind of person." He said as he looked Lee in the eyes.

The older teen looked like he had been struck. And so did several of the others. Shizune sat on the floor with her knees drawn to her chest trying to sort things out in her mind. Naruto was gone. The guilt and grief was killing her. She could only imagine what it would do to Tsunade, Jiraiya and the others who were close to the boy.

"Why are you so upset Yukimaru? You never even knew Naruto." Shino said as he studied the younger boy.

He was certain that the kid wasn't telling them everything. The boy clenched his hands into fists; his finger nails digging into his palms until blood dripped onto the floor.

"Naruto wasn't supposed to die here. He was destined to bring about a new world order. And now nothing….it pisses me off that he was placed in the care of such careless creatures. You people were his protectors just as much as he was your and you failed." Yukimaru said with out much fire.

His words took the older boy aback and stunned the grieving nins into silence as he tried to think of something that could reverse Naruto's fate. It took a moment or so for him to finally figure things out, as he used his second sight to see if his idea would work.

"What do you see?" Kakashi asked from right behind him, snapping him out of his slight trance. Yukimaru didn't answer at first as he went over the details in his mind several times before grinning and looking at Kakashi. It would work. If he kept their current knowledge and skills intact then it would work very well.

"How would all of you like to change Naruto's fate?" Yukimaru said with a grin. Everyone all rushed him at once yelling questions.

All of them begining with, "How?" Yukimaru yelped and felt aggravation seep into his being as his head began to ache.

_Okay forget about informed consent my head hurts too much for this shit._ Digging deep with in his mind he found the connection to the three tailed demon and smiled at the group as he lifted his hand and waved bye to them as they all faded away and vanished. They wouldn't understand what had just happened to them but he was fairly certain that they would catch on really quick. And if they didn't then history was doomed to repeat itself.

Six years earlier-

Kakashi stood in front of the memorial stone, he blunk once, twice then did a slow sweep of the area.

It was dark outside due to the rain clouds in the sky, and he had the oddest feeling of dejavu before he realized where he was, and where he had been just a few seconds before. He was in the village. And he was alone. Doing a quick scan of the stone in front of him he noticed that some of the names were missing. The name of the third Hokage, Asuma, and Naruto's names weren't there. As well as the names of the names of several hundred others one of which happened to be Hyate Gekko.

_Holy shit, I need to find Sakura and the others. _He thought as he took off running through the streets at break neck speed.

Sakura stood in the class room just in front of the door with her back pack in her hand, frozen. And she wasn't the only one. Ino, Kiba, Shino, and Hinata were also frozen in place. Images of their blond class mate flashing through there minds, the image of his death making each of them sink back down into their seats as they looked around puzzled.

"Hey, what are you kids still doing here?" Iruka asked as he looked up and finally noticed the kids sitting there looking dazed. Really were his classes that hard to understand?

"Iruka sensei, what's todays date?" Kiba asked curiously.

Iruka gave him a funny look then smiled and said, "Augest. 12, 2004. Why?" Kiba's jaw dropped, as did Sakura's and Ino's.

"Holy shit." Ino stuttered as she looked at Sakura. Hinata stopped crying and looked jumped up out of her seat.

Six years.

Yukimaru had some how sent them six years back into the past!


	2. six years ago, when everything began

It was the strangest feeling in the world running into people who were supposed to have been dead and buried for six years or so, and yet Kakashi couldn't help but feel happy, confused, and completely adrift. When he had run into Asuma he had flipped out and screamed like a little girl and run from the perplexed nin, like the man was a freaking zombie out to eat his brain. But he was catching on. He remembered Yukimaru. And the others. He also remembered Naruto; had died, and that was apparently the reason he was currently sprinting through the streets like a mad man trying to find the others while dodging any and all others who had died in the time before. Because honestly he couldn't trust himself not to freak out and say or do something stupid. He would have to practice keeping quiet around them or he might change things to a point where really, really bad things might happen. Like end of the world bad. And let's face it, that would suck.

Where the hell was Sakura? And the others? Had he been sent back alone? If not then the kids would find him and soon. In the mean time Kakashi was sorely tempted to go running to the Hokage and tell him everything. But again if he did that bad things could happen. He would have to sit tight somewhere and wait for the kids to find him. Then it hit him; he had been sent back to save Naruto and yet all he was doing was looking for the others. His first priority should have been to find the boy and see what he was currently doing. Yet that seemed to have slipped his mind. He blamed his forgetfulness on old age.

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Sarutobi walked down the deserted hall way of the old abandoned asylum outside of town. He hated the smell of blood and death that always seemed to hang in the air. For the life of him he just couldn't understand why Uzu, a.k.a Naru stayed in this place. It always seemed like a malicious and hungry creature stayed with in its blood spattered walls. Watching and waiting for its chance to strike. But then again Naru wasn't really a normal person so in an odd way it made sense that she would find such a dark, cold, and bloody place comfortable. She came here only when she felt her desire to kill rise inside of her. Another reason was that she sometimes couldn't stop herself from leaving the village and hunting any man, woman or child that happened to be outside the village walls late at night. A small parting gift from the damn fox sealed inside of her. For the next few years she would need to hunt and kill humans to survive. Their blood and organs sustained her life when she was wounded, and helped her regenerate any limbs that the villager hacked off of her small, fragile little body.

Despite that he still loved her fiercely; after all it wasn't her fault that the damn demon needed those things just as much as she did. He turned the corner and stopped when he found himself staring at the bodies of ten dead anbu, and at least four Junín level shinobi. There was a soft creaking sound of a mattress rocking back and forth, oh dear god who was fucking her this time? But most important of all was the question of was it consensual. Ever since she had turned eleven perverts had been coming out of the wood works trying to get a piece of her. They perhaps saw what he saw, a lovely, angelic (in appearance only) little child that seemed too innocent for her own good. Then to some extent the people of the village were showing how stupid they really were at a whole new level.

What Sarutobi saw wasn't just her appearance. He could easily see the darkness inside of her too. She was much to jaded to be a normal child by any means; she smoked (when it pleased her to do so) she drank, she gambled, and other things as well. Still it surprised him that after being sexually assaulted six times; here she was sharing her body with someone. Maybe she was acting out because the ones who had hurt her had made her feel like a cheap whore. He had noticed of late that she spoke less and less, she had even stopped hunting, and the lack of bodies that weren't being found or reported made him fear that she was trying to kill herself by starvation. It was one of the reasons why he was currently standing in the damn hall with his hand raised to knock on the door. He simply didn't know what to do to help her.

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Iruka's slid one of his hands behind his captain's head and kissed the small blonde's swollen pink lips as he rocked his hips, and was rewarded by her soft gasp, as she arched her back under him. She had such an odd look on her face. Like she had expected him to hurt her. He supposed that he couldn't blame her. After all her knowledge of sex was limited only to the assaults that had damaged her body and her heart. It was the reason he was going so slow. He had no desire to hurt her like _those _men had. He had approached her with an idea a month ago, to show her how things were really meant to be between two people behind closed doors. And she had shot him down in flames every time he had brought the subject up, until last night when they had returned home after a mission. He had been a little high strung, and in the need of release. She had stopped him before he could go and said yes to his idea. For a minute he had thought it would be easy to show her what he had honestly thought that she should know, but it hadn't been easy. Every time he had been about to slide himself inside of her she had started crying, and had trembled. Going from safe one moment to afraid the next. It had taken him most of the night but he had finally calmed her down and soothed some of her fears. He had seduced her into surrendering herself to him three times, but he hadn't had to do so this time. Apparently she wasn't that shy after a few goes.

Still he kissed her, touched her, licked and nipped and sucked at her soft sensitive skin; liking the sound of her whimpers, and cries just a bit too much, until he had left love bites, and other discolorations on her skin. He watched her expression for any signs of pain and saw that she was about to cum. Growling he lifted himself off of her slightly and grabbed her legs; she gave him a startled yelp as he hooked her legs over his shoulders and gripped her hips and began to thrust harder. Several seconds later his lips covered hers again in a bruising kiss as he brought her body against his in a crushing hug as they both came.

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Uzu lay on the bed dozing slightly as Iruka picked up his disguarded clothes and quietly dressed. But he was having some trouble because his hands were shaking and his legs felt weak. He looked over his shoulder at the girl lying on the rickety old cot and his heart squeezed painfully in his chest. He felt like scum, engaging in sex with a child. Just the thought of what he had done to her over and over again last night made him feel like he was going to be sick. He wanted to cry, and scream, and pull his hair out. Uzu didn't deserve what had happened to her. But then she rarely deserved the punishments that were dealt to her in the first place.

Honestly who would rape her after she had saved your child from drowning in the river? Or try to surgically remove her heart from her chest after saving your home, and your family from being destroyed during an enemy attack. It was heart breaking just to look at her sometimes. He looked at her again after he finally managed to pull his shirt on and felt the urge to lay down beside her and wrap his arms around her and keep watch until she was awake again. She looked so sweet when she was asleep. _She's the kind you keep. _

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Sarutobi stood back away from the door as…..Iruka? Quietly walked out the door and silently closed it before he realized that he wasn't alone in the hall. He was about to go for his weapons when the old man chuckled and stepped out of the shadows. "Lord Hokage, what are you doing here?" Iruka asked as his face paled a little. It was a well known fact that the Hokage killed people as often as Uzu did, but for entirely different reasons. He killed her tormentors to keep them from doing anything to her again. He had even killed a small group of men for saying that they intended to hurt her. Of course the information wasn't public knowledge, but if it was there would be rioting in the street, and the ever popular demand for Uzu's death. Something that simply wasn't going to happen, not on the Hokage's watch anyway.

"Did you have fun Iruka?" the old man asked as he stared one of the few most loyal to him. Iruka flushed and started stuttering, no doubt trying to explain his actions. Sarutobi let the man squirm. "Why aren't you at the school?" Sarutobi asked quietly, causing the undercover anbu to shut up rather quickly and look guilty. "I had Mizuki hedge into me and take my place teaching today." Iruka said as he kicked at a small pebble on the ground with the toe of his boot, looking very much like the little boy that Sarutobi had played with as a child. "Ah, I see. Well, the good news is that you're going to live through this encounter. But Iruka don't make a habit of this-" Sarutobi said as he gestured with his hand to indicate what Iruka had been doing before he had come out of the room.

"Right." Iruka said as he turned an even darker shade of red and looked away. He was never going to live this down. The old man had a mind like a steel trap and wasn't likely to just let him go without asking questions, or maybe he planned on blackmailing him with the information later on. _I am so screwed. _

_Yes you are. _Sarutobi thought with a grin as Iruka's eyes widened and he looked at the old man. Did he just hear his thoughts?

"What?" Iruka asked. "What?" Sarutobi parroted back looking as innocent as innocent could be while he mentally cackled. It was so much fun to fuck with the minds of others. No wonder Uzu did it all the time.


	3. i hate my life

**When Uzu woke up later that night she wasn't in her cozy little hide away. She was somewhere clean, her body had been washed off, and she had been dressed in a long white satin shirt that fell to her knees; and felt the familiar beginning of panic bubble up in her chest. Making her feel ill, until she managed to catch the familiar scent that she had missed when she had woken up. The scent of orange blossoms and lavender. Tsunade was somewhere in the room. "Sleep well, angel?" The buxom blond asked from the rocking chair across the room. Uzu sighed and counted to ten three times to calm herself down. She should have known that **_**one **_**of her watch dogs would find her eventually and drag her back to the village. Damn them. **

**Tsunade didn't falter in the gentle swaying motion that had her chair rocking at a soothingly calm pace. She had been doing it for so long while waiting for the kid to wake up that she was starting to put herself to sleep. The girl didn't speak, but then that was no real surprise since she rarely used her voice to talk to them anymore. She hadn't really used her voice since she was seven. Not because she didn't want to speak to them, but because she was trying harder to blend into her surroundings to keep from being noticed. In her mind **_**they **_**were the monsters, and if the monsters didn't notice her then they couldn't hurt her anymore. It was an innocent child's logic. And in some cases she had been proven right. Others however….. **

**She growled and curled her sharp fingernails into claws and gripped the armrests on the chair until they creaked in distress. Uzu simply sat there watching her warily. She would stay up and watch her every move until Tsunade either lay down on the bed next to her, in a sign of submission to the younger girls will; or she left the room and didn't come back. **

**She hadn't seen the girl in over four years, and had come running back to the village that she had abandoned after hearing of the latest incident. She had a lot to talk to her daughter about and a very little time to do it in. Either way it was going to be a long night.**

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**Kakashi snuck out of his apartment feeling like a bloody art thief, Sakura and the other kids hadn't found him earlier so now he had to go check up on them, which meant that he would have to break into the Shino's home, and Kiba's home, which was a fucking compound like the Hyuuga's place was which meant that if he got caught he would have to lie like his balls were in danger of getting cut off. Which would work if Hinata, Shino, and Kiba caught on and played along, but would screw him over big time if the kids didn't even remember him, or what they were doing there. **

**Which brought him to his first compound, the Hyuuga clan's home base of evil operations. **_**I am so fucked. **_**He thought as he stared at the gate which seemed to be getting bigger, darker, and more ominous looking by the second. How the hell was he going to pull this off? He looked around for a second before spotting some wild flowers growing just a small distance from the house and an idea occurred to him. Hinata was the eldest daughter of the Hyuuga clan, which meant that he could simply knock on the door in a semi distraught manner and act like her boyfriend or something. But daddy dearest could be a real bastard when he wanted too so simply saying that he was Hinata's boyfriend wouldn't work. No, he needed to step up his game to get her away from her father and the rest of the clan. Crap, he would have to do what he swore never to do. He would have to propose marriage. **_**I am sooooo fucked.**_

**Hinata sat in her room writing a letter to her dad, her sister and a third one to Neji. She didn't really say much in the letters, just that she leaving to join the Anbu Black ops. And would most likely never come back. A better solution than just writing a suicide note and disappearing. And a lot more honest too. After she had realized what year it was, she along with the others had left the school to do some after school training, and found that their future abilities and strengths hadn't been taken from them. Sakura and Ino still knew medical jutsu, she could still do really cool things with her chakra. Shino, and Kiba had also kept their finely honed skills, and Akamaru could shift from a puppy to an adult at will. But they couldn't. Something that bothered Sakura and Ino to no end. The two had been complaining about the lack of the breasts that they had grown when they were older. **

**After making those discoveries they had all decided to become Anbu and get themselves assigned to Naruto, so that they could watch and protect him until the regular flow of time had been restored. They had all sworn a blood oath that things would be different thins time. After that they had agreed on a meeting place for later that night and parted ways after Sakura and Ino told them that they would get Lee, Tenten, Shizune, Yamoto, Sai, and Kakashi who had been strangely missing all day. They had all agreed to meet after everyone had fallen asleep. At an old abandoned building that had once been an asylum for the criminally insane. She was about to stand when she heard shouting outside the front of the mansion, and several people ran by her room cursing as they tried to figure out who was causing such a ruckus. She heard someone close to her bedroom door snarl, "Hatake, what the fuck is he doing here?" **

"**Hinata! Where are you my darling? I must see you at once!" Kakashi yelled at the top of his lungs while he struggled to free himself from the grasp of five really pissed branch members who were trying to drag him out the gate. He almost snorted with laughter at their efforts. He wasn't moving until he saw Hinata goddamn it. Hinata listened to him call out to her twice before she realized what he was doing. **_**I see. That's pretty clever, sensei.**_** She thought as she threw her bed room door open and ran past the other branch members that had taken up position in front of her room to protect her from harm. **

**Hiashi stared at the jounin with something akin to contempt. Just did Hatake think he was doing coming to call on his daughter? And just who did he think he was fooling with his act? He was about to ask when Hinata came barreling past him and threw her arms around the man's neck and kissed him on his masked lips. Effectivly stopping the branch members, and her father in their tracks. Everyone's jaws fell open and hung that way until she pulled away from Kakashi who just grinned under his mask. "What are you doing with the father of my unborn child?" Hinata demanded giving the five men holding him back her most regal glare while Hiashi sputtered and pointed at the two of them until he hit full sensory overload and fainted from the shock. Hinata smirked, guess she wasn't such a failure now, was she. **

**Oh, man she was a great actor. But wait, had she said something about a kid? Kakashi thought as the men let go of him. "Inform my father when he wakes up that Kakashi and I are being wed by special license tonight." Hinata said loud enough for all of her clan to hear as she picked up her backpack and took Kakashi's hand and the two of them vanished.**

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**After leaving Hinata's place the heiress filled him in on everything that had happened while he had been looking for them. Including the Anbu plan that they had all agreed on. To say that he had been shocked was an understatment. But what really shocked him was the fact that it could actually work. All of them had achived the rank of chunin before the time travel crap had happened. But all of them fought on a jounin level. Except Sakura who was the only one in the group who could fight on a sanin level. They could go directly to the Hokage and ask for a special test, that would show their advanced skills and get all of them into Anbu. And Kakashi could get back in at any given time. He could say that he had secretly been training the kids and vouch for their abailities. Yes that really could work. Naruto would live. And the order of the universe would be restored. **

**And yet he still somehow ended up formally engaged to both Kiba, and Shino while trying to retrieve them, and being married to Hinata with a kid on the way. He would die of stress related mortification at this rate. **


	4. a new begining

Sakura was pissed, no she was beyond pissed. Sai had'nt been anywhere out in public so the pinkette for some unkown godly reason took it upon herself to storm the Root headquarters in the middle of a bloody meeting that Danzou was having with his men and was about to say something to have the girl killed when she grabbed Sai by the scruff of his uniform and dragged him out kicking and screaming, in front of everyone in the room. They had a meeting to get too.

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Shizune had awoken in her bed last night with a cold and had found herself in the same old room that she had slept in for many years as a child. The same room that was part of the apartment that she had lived in after her uncle Dan's death, before she had taken up with Tsunade. The same room which had Tsunade sitting in a lounge chair beside the window with a book in her lap. What year was it? Yukimaru had said somthing about sending them back. Back to where? She knew it had something to do with Naruto's death, and the villages treatment of him, but what exactly were they supposed to change besides his untimely death? "Hn, your finally awake. How are you feeling Shizune?" Tsunade asked without any hint of a slur. Oh shit, was Tsunade freaking sober? Shizune wondered as she sat up in bed and noticed that the woman was'nt wearing a hedge to make her look young. She was in her early thirties by Shizune's estimate. Her looks had'nt faded until she had reached fifty eight.

What year was it? Just how far had Yukimaru send her back? Had the others come back in time too? _Where is Naruto?_ Was he okay? Shizune thought before she realised that Tsunade had grown impaitent with her silence and was right in front of her. _Eep! When did she move?_ Shizune thought when the woman knelt down until they were eye to eye, her golden brown narrowed as she grasped Shizune's face and turned her head this way and that as if she had seen something and was curious to see if she could figure out what it was by doing so. "Answer me brat." the woman growled as she shifted her hold from the younger's face to her hair grabbign a fistfull of the black silken locks and tugged her head back almost painfully. _Ah, now I get it._ Shizune thought as she looked the woman in the eyes, and stammered out a reply to get the woman to let go.

Tsunade had often done that little move when Shizune would space out, or stop paying attention to her medical training. Tsunade had explained later on about how it was the only way she could get her attention without truly hurting her. And now that she was starting to understand exactly what was going on she now knew that Tsunade's chaice of not hurting her had been for both of their sakes. Tsunade's life after Dan's death had been a mess, her sanity hanging by a percariuos thread. Until she had started to train Shizune, and fell in love with her talent, and her kindness. For as long as Shizune could remember Tsunade had acted like a caged animal, and had latched onto her because she later explained, "Shizune kept her human."

Tsunade reguarded the fifteen year old in front of her. She had Dan's eyes. Sure they were a different color but she had his eyes just the same. Training her in medical jutsu would be an advantage to her, and the village. Uzu could benifit as well from having a medic or three on her team. Uzu Uzumaki was natorious for taking suicide missions and walking away. It was one of the reasons that she was sent out so often. She could destroy an entire nation in a second and she knew it. Still she needed a team to go with her. Sarutobi had been secretly looking for people who could take orders well, and do their job without question. But such shinobi were incrediblyhard to find. So he had hand pick several who knew the girl and would take orders from her. Itachi Uchiha, the second youngest Anbu to ever be admitted into the Anbu black ops. Iruka Umino, former prankster turned tracker, and demolitions expert. Jiraiya, he was often used to distract the enemy. Hizashi Hyuuga, whom had been supposedly exicuted to save his twin brother, but had been saved, and entered into the Anbu to protect him. (Uzu had pulled a real duzy of a fast one on them that time) Tsunade, with her medical jutsu. And Anko, who was a crazy bitch; but was totally in love with her captian, literally. Hanna Inoizuka, was used for search and destroy missions. They had only a handful of those. But they needed more help to do the things that they did esspecially since Orochimaru had gone rouge only a year ago.

_Why had'nt Sarutobi picked more?_

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After liberating Sai from the Root headquarters she had met up with Ino, Lee, and Tenten. Hinata and the others would probably get to the meeting place long before they did. It took another twenty minutes or so to reach the resturaunt run by Choji's parents, and calmly like nothing was going on walked to the private room that they had reserved for their meeting. Once everyone was there they would put a privacy barrior up to protect their meeting from being over heard. As soon as Sakura opened the door to the room she and the others were met with the oddest sight that they had ever seen.

Kakashi was on his hands and knees in one corner of the room muttering things about marriage, and how he must be cursed. While Shino, and Kiba were both huddled together muttering about how they couyld kill Kakashi before the honeymoon. "Fuck that lets kill him before the wedding." Shino growled as he tried his best to try to stop shaking with barely supressed killing rage. He was'nt all that sure he could stop himself from attacking the man for humiliating him like he had in front of his father, and other family members. It was a damn good thing that he liked Naruto a great deal or he would kill Kakashi for what he had done. "_Give daddy kisses darling." _Indeed.


	5. we've been waiting for you

Hazashi Hyuuga sat in a tree branch watching his young son, Neji practice with his sensei. It was alarming how much time had passed. His son had been nine when he had been ''killed'' by the main branch to save the village. And now his son was twelve, and a genin. He had missed so much! Yet he was grateful that Kitsune had interfered with his ''exicution''. After all if it was'nt for her he would truely be dead now, and unable to watch his son; even from a distance. Not only had she saved his life but she had also removed the caged bird mark that had been branded into his skin, and allowed him to visit his brother Hiashi, but also made him one of her Anbu. Something that had protected him from being discovered alive and actually killed by the councel of elders. Yes he had much to be thankful for. Since Kitsune had saved him he had grown rather attached to the tiny spit fire. She was rather stingy with her affections; almost like a princess or a queen, and when she smiled....the heavens wept from the sheer beauty of it. But since the incident several months ago she stopped speaking and had withdrawn farther into the protecive shell that she wore like her damn Anbu armor.

Since the incident he and the others have been itching to kill the ones responsable for hurting her. In fact if she gave them the order to raze the village to the ground with everyone in it they would do it, because she was'nt just their leader, she was their princess and they would give anything to see her smile again; just one more time. He supposed that that was part of the reason that he was currently watching his son even though he had been warned that he could be killed for seeking him out, Hizashi could'nt help it, he loved his captain, but he loved his just as much and had wanted to see him for a little while to erase the odd pain that twisted in his chest everytime Kitsune refused to speak, or joke, or smile like she used too. Even Anko was upset because of the little girls injuries. It had gotten so bad two weeks ago that Anko had been admited to the hospital for not eating, and for being believed that she was becoming a danger to herself.

She had'nt done anythign until Kitsune paid her a visit, and fed her and stayed with her herself. Anko had done much better after that, and had finally been released from the hospital several days ago after she had regained the weight that she had lost. Iruka, Itachi and Kitsune had all been there to walk her home once she stepped out the door. Hizashi had watched from a distance as Anko had fallen to her knees and cried as soon as she saw Kitsune; whom had suprised the others by smiling in greeting. After which the three had all pounced on the girl and took turns hugging her and kissing her cheeks. He had been amused as he watched the girl gritted her teeth and hissed like a cat as she tried to excape from the three so that she could run away like she normally did when they did somethign like that. Still it had given them all hope that she was coming back to them. And sometimes hope was all one had to keep them sane.

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It was time. History was about to be made. Today he and a bunch of kids were joing Anbu. Oh god, who was he kidding they were about to be laughed out of the Hokage's office. There was no way in hell that the Third Hokage would let the kids and him join the Anbu ranks without a perfectly good reason for doing so. But what could he and the kids possiably say to convince the old man. The truth would just have them commited to the phyciatric ward at the hospital. So what were they going to do?

"Lord Hokage will see you all now." the secretary said as she came out of the man's office and held the door open for the group. Kakashi walked in first and almost stopped when he saw Shizune and Tenzou standing in front of the man's desk, but what was even more suprising was Tsunade stood there with Jiraiya. Both of them were dressed in Anbu uniforms their masks hung off to the side of their faces. He noted the suprised look on all of their faces as Shizune and Tenzou grinned and motioned for him to take his place beside them as the kids all got into formation on the other side of him.

Sarutobi took his pipe out of his mouth and looked over the kids then gave Kakashi, Shizune, and Tenzou a curious look before speaking. "And what can I do for all of you, Kakashi? Are you planning to tutor all these kids?" He asked with a hint of amusment in his voice. Kakashi and the others bristled slightly at the tone. Kakashi looked from one face to the next silently asking them if they really wanted to do this. It was unanamous. Everyone was in. And so was he. He knew more than anyone just how bleak one's existance was without Naruto in it. Naruto to him was the same as the sun. If it died so did everything else. He took a deep breath to try and calm his racing heart then spoke the words that he would commit to no matter what happened. Naruto would live, even if he had to kill everyone else to achieve that goal.

"We want to join the Anbu black ops." he said as calmly as he could. Sarutobi looked at him for a moment then at the kids. What did he mean by _we_? "You can rejoin Anbu if you want. You can go in with Shizune. Tenzou has been an Anbu for several years so there is no need for his to be here. You may leave now." Sarutobi said as he made a shooing motion with his hand. Sakura gritted her teeth then marched up to the man's desk and slammed her palms down on the oak splitting it in two. Gaining the Hokage's attention along with Tsunade, and Jiraiya. "Listen to me old man, we came here because something really bad is going to happen to someone we all care about! And I'll be damned if I'm leaving without my Anbu uniform." Sakura snarled menacingly. Sarutobi looked from his broken desk to the girl. Sakura Haruno, was her name if he remembered correctly. For her to have broken his desk like that she had to be using something dangerously close to medical jutsu, because Tsunade was the only one he knew of with such fantastic control of her chakra.

He looked at the girl, then the other kids his curiosity getting the best of him. "Some one you all care about. Why not tell your parents and see if they will help?" Sarutobi asked as he folded his arms across his chest and stared the girl down. "Because our parents are part of the problem." Lee said as he stepped forward. _Part of the problem? Just who is this person? Why did Kakashi, Shizune, and Tenzou feel the need to become anbu all of a sudden?_ Sarutobi wondered as he stared at the children who were defiantly staring back at him. "Alright, tell me who this person is and I'll help you any way I can." _But I'm not making you Anbu. _

All at once everyone in the room answered in unison, "Uzumaki, the jinchirki!" Sarutobi jumped to his feet and glared at them all as his chair fell to the floor. "Who told you all about that?" The Hokage hissed like a snake, his dark eyes narrowed at them. It was Sai who raised his hand and looked guilty. "I'm sorry sir, it was an accident. I was merely asking Uzumaki a question, and forgot that they were all in the room." Sai said honestly. Sarutobi glared at the thirteen year old. "We want to protect him." Lee said as he linked hands with Sakura who in turn linked her hand with Kakashi's and so on until everyone was holding hands to show that they were a united in their convictions. Each with the same purpose. To protect the one who had died for them in the future.

Sarutobi was about to say no again when Tsunade and Jiraiya intervened on their behalf. "Sarutobi-san, why not let them. We need as many skilled Anbu as possible now with Orochimaru on the loose. And who knows when he'll try to get to Uzumaki again. The kid does sort of need protecting. I know that I have a hard time doing my work when I worry about the kid." Jiraiya said with a cold smile. Tsunade smirked. "The extra man power would be nice. It means less work for our old bones and more work for the brats. I dont know about anyone else but I could do with a vacation." She said as she flipped one of her pony tails over her shoulder. Sarutobi sighed in defeat. Damn brats would be the death of him, he just knew it. "Very well, and I know just who all of you can serve under." Sarutobi said with an evil grin. "I'll go get our captain!" Jiraiya said as he jumped around in his spot gleefully. "Dont bother the kid is outside asleep in a tree, with Iruka." Sarutobi said as he walked past them.

Kakashi and the kids all looked at each other then shrugged and followed the old man down the hall, then down the steps and out into the private guarden that he had planted for his wife when he had asked her to marry him. To Sarutobi it was a place of bitter sweet memories of the life and lose of the one he had loved. Walking over to an cherry tree he looked up and found Iruka holding his captain in his arms as she slept. This may not be a good idea. But the kids had been adamint about protecting her, so there was nothing else he could do but hope that things didn't blow up in their faces. "Iruka, bring Kitsune down here to meet her new team. And for god's sake man wake her up." Sarutobi said. Iruka nodded and shook the girl awake as Sarutobi moved away from the tree. His work was done for now so he didn't really need to be here, and yet he wanted to see the looks on everyone's faces when they learned that the very person that they had wanted to protect would now be their leader.

Iruka jumped down dressed in an Anbu uniform and put someone he had been holding on the ground and moved to stand beside Sarutobi as the blond gave a sleepy yawn and shook her head to wake herself up. Kakashi, Shizune, Tenzou, Lee, Tenten, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Sakura, Sai and Ino all stared at the kid in front of them slack jawed. There right in front of them was a small kid, with long whiteish blond hair, with silver tints to it, wide vermillion red eyes and Naruto's face. Holy shit, their captian was Naruto!

The blond looked from one person to the next then smiled and said the creepiest works that they had ever heard pass the kid's lips. "We've been waiting for you." Uzu said as she started to laugh. Their expressions were really very funny. _I guess my future self forgot to mention some things when she was bonding with these people. _


	6. the truth shall set you free, right?

To say that everyone was in shock would be putting it mildly. What they were was somewhere way beyond shock. How was it that Naruto was their captain? And what had the blond meant when he had said, "_We've been waiting for you._" How creepy. But what was even creepier was the fact that the boy had started to call each of them by name when they had'nt introduced themselves yet. Sakura was one of the first to recover along with Shino, Sai, Lee and Hinata. "Naru-kun!We have missed your spring time of youth!" Lee shouted as he ran over to the blond and almost had his head taken off by a few kunai knives that had been thrown by Iruka who was looking really pissed at the moment. "Dont you dare touch, Uzu-chan unless you want me to slit your throat! Our captain was hurt very badly a few months back and has'nt been able to trust anyone but a few to touch her since." Iruka roared at the kids stopping them in their tracks. He would not have the brats undo all of his work in trying to make Uzu better with such a careless action. The blond looked at Iruka and said somthing in a strange language, and suddenly the man's features changed from rage to shock as he stared at his captian. Sarutobi tilted his head to the side curiously. How did Uzu know the names of the kids, as well as Kakashi, Shizune, and Tenzou; she had never come into contact with them. Had she?

Uzu looked from one familiar face to another and could'nt stop grinning. They were all there. Even wierd ol Sai was there. Perfect. Now she could change everything back to the way it was meant to be. Which meant that she would have to kill Orochimaruand save Yukimaru, as was part of her original plan, hide the birth of her two kids from everyone, stop the Uchiha's from being wiped out completely, destroy the Akatsuki, and make friends with the other vessels, like herself, and send the ones not sealed back to hell. While saving Sarutobi, Asuma, Jiraiya, Sauske, Itachi, Hinata, Shikamaru, Kiba and his mom, Kakashi; the father of her children, and many others. She had a hell of a time ahead of her. And none of it was going to be easy. Still it was good to see them all alive and well after a thousand years. She snickered at the thought of being called granny by them if they knew.

They were all staring at her like she was the oddest thing in the world, and maybe they were right. She was just happy that she had this chance to make things right and see them again. Anyone who said that demons didn't live long in human form was lying through their damn teeth. But their ignorance was something that she would have to correct if she was going to live out her life from begining to end again. "You know us." Shizune said in awe; finally breaking the silence. Uzu looked at her and nodded, still smiling. "And my darling ones we have a lot to talk about, and a very little amount of time to talk in." She said as she stared them down. Sarutobi cleared his throat to remind them that he, Iruka, Jiraiya and Tsunade were still there listening. She looked at them and her smile faltered a bit. They had been the first ones to ever care about her as a child, she was almost afraid of what they would do if they knew that the nine tailed demon had evolved into a demon with a thousand tails before it had been absorbed into her being completely during the fourth, and last great war. Would they hate her? Would they look down on her for doing something so drastic to save what had been left of their once great nation and it's people? _You have the power to light up the heavens, why not use it to save whats left of your important people? You have my support, and the support of the rest of my village you are after all the Demon Kage of the seven great nations. _Those had been the last words that Gaara had said to her before his death. Kankuro and Temari had fallen soon after.

_If we cant be with him in this life then we'll be with him in the next. _Temari said as she bled out while holding her little brother's hand._ Those are my sentiments exactly, Temari._

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Shizune could'nt beleive it, not only had she and the other been tossed back six years into the past but Naruto knew them, when he should'nt know them at all. What had changed? Could their comeing back have changed the past so drasticlly? She wondered as she stared at the blond who started to walk by her when she heard the blond say, "No. You have'nt changed anything yet." as he passed her to go into the building then stopped and turned and motioned for them to follow him. Sarutobi and the others fell into step behind the group boxing them in as they followed the blond to the Hokage's office where Naruto sat down in the Hokage's chair and steepled his fingers together and put his feet up on what was left of the broken desk as he waited for everyone to get into the room.

They all had questions, and she was the only one who could answer them. Once they were all in the room Uzu looked at Sarutobi and told him, not asked him; to put up a privacy barrior. Which he did after being given the do-it-or-die-screaming look that he knew so well. After all both Iruka and Tsunade had taught her that look, and he knew from personal experiance that she had the skill to back the damn look up. He muttered bout damn brats, and how the will of fire was quickly becoming a pain in the ass as he did so, earning more than a few laughs from the others who all stopped laughing when Naruto glared at them and told them to shut their mouths and pay attention. Sarutobi's eye brows disappeared under his hat at that remark. It was slightly out of character for Uzu to start barking out orders and expecting even him to obey them but he was sure that she had her reasons. But he would admit that he was curious about what those reasons were.

Once he was done she looked at the kids and then Kakashi, Shizune, and Yamoto, and then him, Iruka, Tsunade, and Jiraiya and then started talking. "I know that all of you a wondering why I know who you are when we've never actually met. And I will try to answer all of you but you must understand that there _are_ some things that I just _cant_ tell any of you. Do you all _understand_?" She asked as she looked everyone in the eye. They all nodded.

"Then ask your questions." She said as Sakura stepped forward and asked, "How do you know us when we've never met?"

Her dark green eyes were slightly troubled. Uzu sighed. "We have'nt met here in this era, but we would have met in another year or so." Uzu said as she recalled her school days at the acadamy. Shizune was next.

"Are you in the same situation as us?" She asked determined to know just what they had been thrown back into.

"Yes, and no." Uzu said easily as she kept her fingers steepled together to hide her hands shaking.

Shino came forward next. "What do you mean yes, and no? Is there something that we are missing?" He asked. Uzu tried to contain the snort of laughter that bubbled up but failed. It took al of ten seconds for her to regain control and clear her throat.

"Ah, sorry about that. Yes, you are missing something. Yes, I am in a similar postition, but my reasons are completly different from your own. Although I must say that all of you have taken up right where you were meant to be just fine this time." Uzu said with a mischivious smile.

Kakashi was next with a question. "What do you mean this time? How many times have we, ya know? Like now."

Uzu didn't even hesitate, "Two hundred and ninty nine times. To me it's the same as living two hundred and ninty nine years. So as you can imagine I've had quite a while to think things out. I've also been delving into whatever I thought I could use when all of you stopped running around like chickens with your heads cut off. And I have learned things that would make your hair turn white with terror. It's funny what one will do with several hundred years of time on their hands." Uzu said as she sat back and let them absorb her words like sponges. Tsunade was the next to ask a question. As her golden brown eyes studied the girl.

"Are you saying that you have time hopping or something? That they are also time hopping? And if so, what jutsu are you using to do it?" She asked as Uzu stood up and began to pace back and forth.

"It's a blood line trait. And it only works under special sercomstances. They came from a future where I was killed. I came from much, much farther in time than they did, on the day that I died." she explained as she walked back and forth.

It was Sarutobi who asked the next question. "How far did you come?"

Uzu looked him dead in the eyes and gave him a wicked smile that should have clued him in on what she was thinking. "One thousand, two hundred and ninty nine years." No sooner than she said those words than everyone in the room went slack jawed....again. She rolled her eyes at them to show that she was not amused.

"Holy shit. Holy shit." Kiba chanted under his breath as Kakashi stepped up to her and grabbed her arms to stop her movements.

"How? How did you survive that long? What were you doing all that time?" He shook her a little as if that would get her to tell him something.

She snarled and jerked out of his grasp.

"Your not that fucking stupid Hatake. All of you know what I am. Thats how I survived. I lived to watch you and everyone else here die and turn to dust while I lived. I lived to try and save the village and what was left of it's people when the Akatsuki attacked! I lived to watch my children grow up with all of yours! I had too, they were all I had left of any of you! I came back to change what I can and save as many as I can! I will not relive another one thousand and tree hundred years without any of you! Do you understand!" She yelled as she started crying. Everyone in the room seemed to be holding their breath, or once again shocked into silence. It didn't matter to her. She was starting to feel sick at heart. Would any of them understand? Would they even care just how much she had wanted to see them again?

It was Iruka who broke the silence with his own question. "When did you get here-" he motioned around him to indicate the here and now "In this time?" He asked as he stared at her, his dark eyes questioning her silently. He needed to know if she had gotten there before the rape or during. She obviously knew what he wanted to know, but looked away.

"Why didn't you fight back? You obviously could have stopped them if you had wanted too." He said gently as Kakashi let go of her. She could'nt help it, she gave in to hystrical laughter.

"Because they would have killed me, and the whole damn thing would start over again. And I dont think I could handle reliving those minutes over and over again until the end of time. I would have destroyed everything in this world first." she hissed suddenly angry that he had even braught that up. She had been doing her damnest to forget the incident, but how could she when he and everyone else kept mentioning it.


	7. guilt and sorrow

That had been the last of the conversation before Tsunade had drugged her to calm her down. She had noticed that Uzu was breathing far too fast, her small body trembled uncontrolably, all in all the girl was literally falling apart right in front of them; so really she had no other choice but to interven. Once she looked calmer Tsunade took her pulse and motioned to Iruka to take her. Honestly enough was enough, Uzu could'nt handle any more questions tonight. They all watched in silence as Iruka picked the blond up in his arms and the boy automatically buried his face in Iruka's neck and started to sob. "Shhh, it's okay now, angel. Ruka's got you." Iruka murmered to the boy as he rubbed his back and then made his first mistake in front of Kakashi, he kissed the boy on the lips when he pulled back to look at him.

"You son of a bitch!" Kakahsi snarled as he moved forward to kill the man who had just kissed the under age boy on the lips. A boy that had been raped only a few months ago and still was'nt healed. How dare he do such a thing to Naruto! Naruto was one of his to care for and by god he would kill Iruka and take him away from the man's cold dead hands if he had too! Sakura and Sai, took one side while Hinata and Lee took another until Iruka was boxed in.

Sarutobi watched as the group closed in on Iruka like a pack of wild wolves trying to protect one of their own and almost whistled. The group had'nt been lying when they said that they wanted to protect Uzu. He could tell that all of them were ready to kill Iruka for his carelessness. Iruka pulled the blond against him and tightened his grip on his captain. What the hell was their problem? He wondered as he looked around warily. From the amused looks on Jiraiya and Tsunade's faces he knew that he was'nt going to be getting any help from them. _Thanks a lot assholes._ He thought as the group all went for their weapons. _Hugh? _Iruka thought as he shifted his hold on Kitsune.

Kakashi was the one to break the tension in the room when he held out his hands to Uzu and motioned for her to go to him. Iruka nearly went blind with rage. Just who the hell did this guy think he was trying to take Uzu from him? "What the _fuck_ do you _think _you are doing, Hatake?" he hissed as he tightened his grip on Uzu even more, this time she squirmed in protest.

Kakashi pulled his head band up, uncovering his sharigan eye and glared at the man he had alway thought was just a little too close to Naruto. He had thought that there was something odd about that closeness and now he thought he knew why. Iruka had been fucking Naruto. The way he handled the kid positivly screamed posessiveness. He treated the kid like he belonged to him. It made Kakashi see red that the one person other than the kids that he had thought he could trust was doing something so wrong, and hurting Naruto while doing it. Did Naruto's wishes mean nothing to anyone? "Give him here, now. And maybe I wont slit your fucking throat." Kakashi growled at the younger man. Iruka was about to say something snide when the blond shifted in his arms and looked at him.

"It's okay Ruka. I can go with them. He and the others think that your hurting me." Uzu whispered so softly that only Iruka should have been able to hear her, but Kiba, and Kakashi heard her too. _We think? What the hell does Naruto mean by that? _Iruka looked alarmed for a moment but still refused to let her go. He didn't trust Kakashi and the kids. "I would'nt do that. I have never hurt you and I'll be damned if I start to now." Iruka snarled as his dark eyes glittered with unshed tears. It was a good thing he was off the clock or the others would never let him live down crying in front of them.

Kakashi thought about what Naruto had whispered to Iruka and finally came to the conclusion that Iruka was doing something in an effort to help Naruto heal after being assaulted. And it required him to do similar things to him in a controled envirnment where he would feel safe and could call for help at any given time. So maybe he had jumped the gun a litte but he still didn't like the fact that Iruka was doing those things to Naruto. He looked at Iruka and quickly made a choice. He was going to go with the two and make sure for himself that Iruka was'nt hurting Naruto. "Alright, if you wont hand him over then I'm comeing with you to make sure that nothing too weird happens to Naruto." Kakashi said as he put his weapon away. Shizune looked like she wanted to protest, and so did Sakura. But one look from his mis matched eyes seemed to shut the two up. As Iruka stuttered and turned red. Uzu sighed and pried the mortified man's arms off of her and slid to the floor and took Kakashi's hand then grabbed Iruka's wrist and started to walk back to the bed room where she stayed when she was in the Hokage's home.

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Once inside Kakashi closed the door and looked at Iruka who was still red with embarassment and motioned for him to begin. "I hate you, Hatake." Iruka hissed as he moved forward and looked at Uzu. "Well, are you going to strip?" Iruka muttered as he turned even redder. Uzu looked at Kakashi and shook her head. Great, his presence was already making Iruka's job that much harder.

He sighed and sat down on the bed. "Alright then just loose your pants and we'll get on with it. Do you want me to use anything to prepair you?" Iruka asked gently as Uzu stood and turned her back to Kakashi. Iruka knew why she wanted to do this quickly, she didn't want Kakashi to see any more than was nessisary to appease his curiosity and make him leave. Casting a quick glance at Kakashi he seemed to know what the girl was up too. And from the look on his face he was'nt too happy about the little stunt she was trying to pull.

Pushing away from the door he came to stand right behind the boy as he shed his pants. And started to step back out of them. It was a really good thing that she always wore really baggy clothes or her friends would have noticed she was a girl instead of a boy. And with Kakashi in the room she really had no choice but to keep her baggy knee length white shirt on. But it was'nt just the that she was hiding the fact that she was a girl, it was the scars that the men had left behind on her skin. Especially her back, shoulders and the inside of her legs where the artery's were. She didn't want anyone to see any of them. But Iruka had to see them to help her begin her theropy.

Iruka watched Kakashi like a hawk to see what the damn man was going to do next. He didn't appreciate the fact that he was so close to Uzu. She was about to climb back onto the bed when Kakashi asked, "Why are'nt you taking your shirt off, Naruto?" the sound of the menacing purr of his voice so close to her ear made her jump. She was about to turn and reply when Kakashi grabbed her and tossed her onto the bed on her stomach and pinned her there, then grasped the hem of her shirt and started to pull as Iruka jumped to his feet and tried to stop him. But he was too late. There on Naruto's back was the most horrific thing that he, Kakashi Hatake; had ever seen.

Naruto's back was writtled with scars that looked like they had been delivered to the boy by a razor whip, on top of a large burn scar that took up the entire length of his back and the width of his small shoulders, some of which even covered his buttocks. The scar was the shape of a butterfly with it's wings spread wide. "Oh god, Naruto." Kakashi whispered, his soft tone a mixture of guilt and regret; as he traced the blonds scars with his finger tips before he pulled his mask down and leaned down and started to kiss each scar. How had Naruto survived such wounds with out help? The feel of his lips against her skin was begianing to make her twitch under him. Iruka had been alarmed at first, afraid that Kakashi would cause Uzu to freak out but he was nothing but gentle with her. _Maybe he should take my place here tonight. _Iruka thought as he quietly slipped out of the room.

"I'm so sorry." Kakashi said softly as a tear slipped down his face as he pulled his student into his arms and held him as he cried. He didn't notice the way the blond curled up in his lap to keep him from seeing what she was really hiding as she wrapped her arms around his torso and stroked his hair. Out of all the people who had always felt like they had failed her Kakashi's sorrow, and guilt was the worst. So much so that he had taken his own life several years in the future; before she could tell him about his unborn children. He had been twenty nine.

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Kakashi held onto the blond until he stopped crying. Sometime after he had started to cry, he had subconciously found himself concentrating on the numer of times Naruto's heart beat under his fingers. Apparently it had a very calming effect on the copy nin because soon he stopped crying and simply held the boy as if his life depended on him. Which it tecnically did, since Naruto seemed to understand better than anyone what would happen if he and the others failed to do what they had been sent back to do. It had taken him a little longer to realise that they were alone in the room. Where the bloody hell was Iruka? Didn't he have a fucking job to do? Naruto noticed him looking around the room and said the words that would change his life forever.

"He left because he thought you could take his place." Uzu said gently as she slipped out of his arms and grabbed her shirt from the floor and was about to put it back on when Kakashi stopped her.

"Do you really need this done? Would'nt it bother you if it was me?" He asked as he pried the shirt from Naruto's hand and held on to it like it was an anchor of sorts. Uzu looked at him over her shoulder. Her heart beat was frantic at this point. And she wanted to yell, 'No, no, no it does'nt bother me! I choose you! I choose you!' But that would be a little wierd.

"Yeah, I need this done, but the choice is yours Kakashi. You can do it or I can put it off until tomorrow morning. I wont force you to do something that makes you uncomfortable." She said as she reached out to take her shirt from him and was both suprised and shocked when he grabbed her wrist and yanked her back onto the bed and kissed her long and hard. When he lifted his head a few minutes later there was a dazed look on the blonds face that bordered on comical. A soft pink flush tinting the boy's skin as he stood and pulled his gloves, headband, vest and shirt off, slowly so that he could give the boy time to regain his senses and throw him out of the room. Unfortunatly Naruto just stared at him and nervously figited as he undressed.

_Oh my god! Oh my god! Kakashi's taking his clothes off! Okay, calm down girl. Act natural for gods sake._ Uzu thought as she tried to act as natural as she could but damn it, Kakashi's dark side was emerging and he was making her nervous and-wait where was he?! She looked around and was slightly startled when she felt two steely arms snake around her body._ Eeek! When did he move back there? _She wondered as he threaded her long silken hair through his fingers and let it slide and fall back into place, and repeated the action several times before leaning down and gently biteing the juncture where her shoulder and neck met. While he rubbed himself against her back. A low growl rummbled in his chest. He was demanding that she submit to him. And she would but first she wanted to see where he was going to lead her. There was no point in going blindly after all. She made a strange hissing sound when she felt his fingernails rake across the skin of her inner thighs, dagnerously close to her feminine core. So she did the only thing that she could think of to stop his hands, she quickly nipped at his right arm with her sharp teeth, earning a suprised yelp from Kakashi as blood welled where she had nipped him.

She managed to put the bed between them as he studied the wound on his arm for a second, not in the least deturred from what he was going to do. His mis matched eyes shifted to hers and she swallowed, no more like gulped at what she saw in those eyes. Hunger, his desire was like molten lava burning through his veins. Reflecting in his eyes, making them glow eerily in the pale moonlight. He could plainly see her desire for him as well. It was what spurred him on. Did Naruto want him to chase him? If so he would do so gladly since his body seemed to have developed a mind of it's own. He was waiting for the blond to make the next move. Staring at the boy he gave him the slowest sexiest smile the kid had ever seen. "If thats how you want to do this, I'm game." Kakashi said in another menacing purr. That made the blond sway slightly on his feet as his toes curled.

She would have to be stupid to make him think that she wanted him to chase her. She would also have to be stupid to give in to her impulse to run from the room. She knew what would happen if she did. He would track her, corner her, and claim her as his. Looking at the door behind Kakahsi she played out how this night would end for them. Either she would be mated to him come morning or she could lose him forever. Either way he would catch her before she could get out of the room. She eyed the door again and made her choice as he lunged for her, and missed. As she dodged his outstreatched arms and ran over to the door and was just pulling it open when his hand slammed into it, pushing it closed while he trapped her between his body and the wall. His other hand resting firmly on the nape of her neck, squeezing threateningly. A warning that she should'nt try to run from him again.

Bending down he lifted her up off of the floor and crossed the room back to the bed in three strides and dropped her onto the matress on her back. His eyes traveled over her until he noticed the slit between her legs where Naruto's dick should have been. Ah, now he understood. He almost chuckled at her antics. No wonder she had bitten him. His hands had been too close to her core, he would've found out that she was a girl. He pinned her to the bed and kissed her lips when she opened her mouth to say something effectively stopping her. He didn't really feel like talking anymore anyways there was a strange voice in the back of his mind that was yelling out, 'Claim her, she's ours!' In all honesty it was starting to drive him crazy.

Uzu was about to explain about being a girl when Kakashi's mouth claimed hers. His fingers slipped between her legs and gently traced her nether lips before he pushed the digits inside of her, making her twitch. She doubted that she would ever get used to his ability to do that to her. He moved his fingers slightly to test her readiness for him. She was so slick that he was having trouble concentrating. His body aching in a way that it had never ached before. He lifted his mouth from hers and ran his tongue over the artey in her jugular as she arched her back and gasped his name, while he sped up his hands movements. She whimpered when he moved away from her a moment to ditch his boxers and put his leg between hers to try and get her to spread her legs just a bit more. He stared at her face for a moment then put the head of his cock at her entrance and then slowly pushed inside of her. Sweat beaded on his skin as he tried to go slow. She deserved nothing but tenderness, especially from him.

"Kashi, just push in already." Uzu said as her fingers fisted in the blanket until her knuckles were white. Kakashi gave her a funny look then did as she said, causing her to scream as skin tore slightly, and she tensed making him hiss, "Fuck, your tight." Kakashi swallowed convulsivly as tears slipped down her face. His heart twisted painfully at the sight, as he felt her inner muscles loosening bit by bit until he was all the way inside of her. Leaning down he kissed her cheeks, her lips, and pried her fingers loose from the blanket. When she was ready for him to move she nodded her head, and he gave her a tender smile.

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Kakashi stayed up all night with a knunai in one hand and his free arm wrapped around his student watching her sleep. He had taken his time with her the first time then been a bit more rough with her the other times, but only after asking her what she wanted. He had no desire to be compaired to the ones who had hurt her later on. Even thought he had hurt her a little. He had felt her skin tear around him but could'nt seem to bring himself to stop completely. And he would feel like a bastard again for his actions later. But at the moment he was a little busy dwelling on other things. To be completely honest with himself he had always thought that Naruto was sort of girly. And at some point in the first few years he had known the blond he had been totally convinced about that fact. And Sauske had thought so too because he had seen some of the odd things that Kakashi had seen Naruto do. Like the way the blond had often put his fingers to his lips when he, ahem; she was thinking. Or the way she had often smelled of fingernail polish remover.

And the one time she had shown up for training with her hair unspiked. It had fallen well past her shoulders and curled slightly at the tips. He remembered Sakura's snide comment about how the blond had looked had upset her so much so that they didn't see her for a week after. There had been other signs as well but he had'nt paid any special attention to them. Mainly because none of them had bothered him except for one time that still stood out in his mind.

It had been on a mission. He and his three students had just completed their mission and were on their way home when he had caught the scent of something odd in the air. At first it had made him feel funny, his wolves instinct coming to the forfront of his mind. He had thought it was an enemy attack until he noticed that Sauske was affected by it too. Kakashi had followed his nose so to speak until he had stood derectly behind the blond and caught a whiff of his scent. And for the life of him could'nt remember doing anything after that. He and Sauske had both woken up the next morning to find that Naruto was missing. Sakura had told them that he had gone back to the village because of a medical emergency. And they had asked the blond two weeks later when he finally showed up again at practice, but the kid had'nt told them anything.

But Kakashi knew that scent. It was the scent of an animal in heat, calling to the one who would claim them. Had Naruto gone into heat that time? And if so, would she do it again? Kakashi vaugely heard a soft purring sound coming from his own throat and smiled as the girl shifted closer to him in her sleep. He certainly hoped she would. Because she was his, and noone elses.


	8. uzu's callapse

The next week was full of nothing but practice drillsafter Kakashi and everyone else had met the rest of Uzu's team. They had been amased and shocked at who the remainder of the team was comprised of. Jiraiya, Tsunade, Iruka, a younger Anko, Hannah and Itachi, all three in their mid to late teens, and the last member had been the most shocking, especially for Hinata since she came face to face with her 'late' uncle Hizashi Hyuuga, who had just bowed respectfully to her and then took his place beside his captain. But that had been on their first day. Today was completely different. Today all of them were running drills with Naruto as their Anbu captian, and she was a slave driver if the angry curses and unlady like remarks of both Anko and Tsunade were any indication at all as they tried to crawl through the thorny area on their stomaches. Their mission for the day was to catch their captian by late after noon and so far she had proven to be a very wiely, and elusive target to catch. She always seemed three or more steps ahead of them.

Kiba had gotten so frustrated at one point that he had come out of hiding and started to yell, "Free Ramen, all you can eat!" And then started to whistle like he was calling for a dog or something. To which their captian had showed herself long enough to knock the dog lover into next week, and then tossed him into the nearest lake and promptly vanished again. They expected him back sometime next thursday.

"This is so frustrating. Naruto is much faster than he used to be. How are we going to catch him?" Lee half asked half complained to Tenten, Hinata, Sakura and Sai who were all panting just as hard as he was.

"I know what you mean, Naruto was barely at chunin level when he died, and now it's like he's at sanin level or something. Even if we do catch him; he'll just excape again. There's no way to beat him." Tenten panted as she looked at the faces of the others. Sakura looked grim for a moment then smiled. The only way to know just how far Naruto had come was to have him fight the strongest among them one after the other until they wore him down.

"I've got a plan. Where are the others? We need everyone for this." she said with a grin. She doubted that even Naruto would expect them to try and pull this off just to catch him. The others all looked at her and suddenly felt afraid for Naruto's life. Sakura's smile didn't bode well for their blond friend.

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It took almost fourty five minutes but the kids managed to find the adults and their missing teamates except for two. Iruka, and Itachi. Kakashi looked a little suprised when Sakura and the rest of the kids found him with Tsunade, Jiraiya, Anko, Tenzou, Shizune, and Hizashi, making plans to find and capture their prey without damageing her.

"Sakura what are you doing here? Did something happen?" Shizune asked as she suddenly went from Anbu mode to medic mode in under thirty seconds. Sakura grinned at her.

"We have a plan." She said almost happily before she and the others realised that Iruka and Itachi were MIA.

"Where are-" Lee started to ask when Tsunade snarled.

"The low down dirty bastards joined evil forces with Kitsune and are currently plotting our down fall." The buxoum blond looked like she was about to cry.

"Oh, sorry. Anyways we have a plan to catch Kitsune. We're going to send out the strongest fighters at the same time and wear him down until he cant fight anymore." Sakura said with a smile. Tsunade, Jiraiya, Anko, and Hizashi all looked horrified.

"Are you insane? Do you honestly think that we have'nt tried that tactic before?" Hizashi asked as he and the others all took several steps away from Sakura and the rest of the group.

"Kitsune nearly killed us all when we did!" Anko cried dramatically.

"Brat did'nt even hold back." Tsunade said as memories of that day flashed through her minds eye and she started to shake.

"I have'nt even found religion yet, I cant die!" Jiraiya almost yelled as he grasped Kakashi and shook him until the smaller man's teeth rattled.

Sakura and the others all looked at the adults with a mixture of doubt and curiosity. Did Naruto really scare the highest level fighters in their new team? Sakura's thoughts were similar to everyone elses at that point. _I've got to see this for myself. _

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Uzu sat in a tree a little ways away from the rest of the team staring blankly ahead as she saw Orochimaru, laughing maniaclly while standing in bloody snow, waiting for her; in her minds eye. It would'nt be much longer until it started to snow in the leaf village. Not much longer until she had to face the man who had taken so many lives in the presuit of an insane dream. And what was immortality anyways? Just another tourture device to her. She had live for so long that she had longed for death only after the first twenty years or so, and had tried to kill herself more times than she could count without getting a headache.

She had seen so much horror in her life that it haunted her even when she was awake. Everywhere she looked all she saw was blood, and faces of the ones who suffered and died; when they should have lived and been happy. All because of her. She was responsable for so many deaths, and just as much suffering. "If I had died instead of lived. Would everything be the way it's supposed to be?" she asked noone in particular as she stood and looked at her hands. They seemed clean at first glance, but when she blinked she saw the crimson stain that had become a huge part of her life, dripping from her finger tips until she felt the insane urge to chop off her hands and gouge out her eyes. But she knew it was pointless to do so. After all she was a demon, with a human heart. And she was doomed to suffer forever.

"Captian, the others have finally come up with a plan." Iruka said as he and Itachi dropped down onto a tree limb just above Uzu's head and looked at each other when she didn't respond.

"Captian? Are you alright?" Itachi asked as he studied the girl. She seemed lost in thought at first glance but then he too noticed the odd way that she was staring at her small hands, and the way that she was teetering on the tree limb, like she was about to fall at any second. It was startign to worry him and Iruka. And for good reason since she actually did fall just as Iruka reached out to grab her arm. Itachi reacted before Iruka could finish yelling in alarm throwing him self off of the limb where he had been and using his agility to catch the girl before either of them could hit the ground head first. He grunted as he landed on the ground on his feet with his captian gently cradled in his arms, as his feet skidded across the ground, sending dirt and grass flying in different directions.

"Itachi, are you okay?" Iruka called as he jumped from one tree limb to the next until he was on the ground running over to the younger man. Itachi shifted his body weight as he nodded and looked at Iruka who dropped to his knees beside him and took his burden from his arms. Uzu's body was limp, dead weight, her eyes closed as if she had lost conciousness, but at least she was breathing.

"Go find Tsunade, and tell her what happened. And tell the others that our practice is suspended until Kitsune is back to herself!" Iruka said as the younger man nodded and took off like a bolt. As Iruka gently shook Uzu and lightly patted the side of her face in an effort to wake her up. She didn't even react. He timed the minutes that he spent trying to wake her up when Tsunade, and the rest of the group suddenly appeared, all of them looking rather worried.

"What happened?" Tsunade asked as she made him lay Kitsune on the ground and started to check the girl.

Iruka and Itachi both filled her in on their captian's little swan dive out of the highest tree. And Tsunade growled in annoyance when she checked Uzu for wounds and signs that she had been caught in some sort of genjutsu or something. Physically there was nothing wrong with her. So why was her breathing so shallow, and her heart beat so damn weak? On the outside she seemed just fine but if that was the case why were her vitals crashing right before their eyes?

"This is bad. We need to get her to the hospital, now!" Tsunade said as she scooped the girl up and took off with the rest of the group fast on her heels.

"Whats going on, Tsunade? What's so bad that your freaking out?" Jiraiya asked as he kept pace beside her.

Tsunade shot him a look then replied, "Her vitals are crashing. And I dont know why."


	9. a hunting we will go

They were almost to the village gates when Uzu woke up and started to squirm, and yell. "Lemme go Tsunade!" Causing the woman and the others to stop just ten minutes away from the gate. Tsunade glarred at their captian as she set her down. _Well, that was odd._ Tsunade thought as she took the girl's pulse. Now it was perfectly normal. _Just what the hell was going on?_ Uzu stummbled a bit until her back rested against something solid, and she looked up to see Kakashi standing there with a worried look on his masked face. But at the moment she could'nt really bring herself to care.

She was too busy trying to remember the last time she had hunted. The sudden loss of conciousness, halutinations, fatigue, sleep deprevation, uncontrolable shaking, or trembling, headaches, nausea. Shit, she needed to loose her team and go before she ended up ripping someone's throat out like a fucking animal. Her breathing was still labored, but at least she was awake. Tsunade had been worried that she would'nt regain conciousness for a while. If at all. "Kitsune, are you alright?" Tsunade asked as she took the girl's hand in her own and gave it a soft squeeze. Uzu looked at her and started to answer but could'nt get past the overwhelming need to taste someone's blood on her tongue. She gritted her teeth and slowly counted to ten before muttering.

"Gods, I'm starving." Her stomach was starting to cramp viciously, making her feel ill. As she tried to crush the urge to attack them. They were her precious people. The ones that she loved more than her own life. She would not give in and kill some of them just because she had so stupidly been preocupied for the past few months and had'nt hunted when she was supposed to. Tsunade picked up on her words as well as Kakashi did. Ah, so that was the problem. Come to think of it none of them could even remember seeing her eat in the past few days or so.

Tsunade smiled at the girl, and tried to get her to move. Her poor little gaki, no wonder she lost conciousness before. If Tsunade went that long without eating her body would probably react that way too. She tugged on Uzu's wrist to get her to start walking as she took a step and was almost yanked right off of her feet by the brat. Uzu glared at her and tried to extract her wrist from her adopted mother's hand.

"Kitsune, please if your hungry we'll get you something in the village." Iruka said gently as he knelt down in front of her and tried to reason with her and nearly got his head blown off when she extended her hand and used her chakra to blow up the tree behind him and the others. Sending splinters of firey wood raining down on them, before they looked at her again in shock.

"Alright magots, these are your new orders. Go home, get some rest and meet out here again in three days. Got it?" she said coldly unaware that her eyes were glowing again. Her breathing was becoming more labored by the second, and the fact that she had used her chakra on such a flashy light show didn't help things much at all. Sakura, Ino, Kiba (who had finally returned from his trip into next week) Lee, Tenten, Shizune, Tsunade, Iruka, and Itachi were all about to protest when she gave them her most frightening glare. While Hizashi cocked his head to the side and silently studied her like Anko, Tenzou, Sai, Hinata, Shino and Jiraiya were. All of them seemed to have the same thought. _Is it the Kyuubi hurting her?_

"I dont need you here, now get lost." she said between pants as she pushed away from Kakashi and gave him a brief apoligetic look then disappeared into thin air before anyone could say or do anything to stop her.

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"What just happened?" Tsunade asked as she turned to her husband, Jiraiya simply stared after his adopted daughter and then gave Tsunade a sad look. Anko chewed her thumb nail anxiously as she tried to think. It was the Kyuubi, right? Not the villagers? Or the village, or them? But the Kyuubi.

"It's the Kyuubi is'nt it?" Sakura asked as she looked at Jiraiya, who was holding a distraught Tsunade's hand. He looked at the girl with the gaudy pink hair and nodded.

"Kyuubi is doing something to her that she does'nt want us to know about." Jiraiya said as he hugged Tsunade and ran his hands up and down her back in a soothing gesture.

"But didn't Naruto-kun say that he was hungry? If he is hungry why leave the village completely when he could get food right over there?" Lee asked as he tried to sort out somethings that he just didn't get. Since meeting up with the younger version of their friend he had noticed some things that he had never noticed before. One) Naruto looked considerably different from the boy they had known. He had long hair that hung down his back to his waist, and the color of his skin, eyes and hair were off too. Was that perhaps a by product of his time jumping? Or had he always looked like that and had simply looked the other way only around the people of the village? Two) He handled himself like a seasoned fighter. Similar in nature to Jiraiya, Tsunade, Iruka, Itachi and the rest of the adults. Was that also an a by product of his time jumping? Three) His personality was much pricklier, and colder than the Naruto that Lee remembered. That Naruto had always laughed and joked at and about everything. The Naruto that they had met a week ago was nothing like that. Lee had always been aware of the fact that Naruto had secrets. Was the way he is now one of them? And how had his personality from the future been changed so drastically; unless he had alway been like this. And had simply used his smiles and jokes as a cover; a mask of sorts, to throw them all off of how strong and smart he really was.

"That would make sense." Lee said in a low tone that he was sure that noone else could hear. Sakura cocked her head and stared at him for a few moments as he muttered about nearly 'impossable' things and how his head was starting to hurt.

Kiba who had been quiet since his completel and utter defeat at the hands of the weakest shinobi to ever live, listened to the way everyone outside of the time jumper teams refur to the blond as a 'she' everytime they said something. And it was starting to make him wonder if maybe Naruto was playing a cruel joke on the adults by posing as a girl. Lifting his hand in the air in the universal sign of 'I have a question' he waited for someone to ask him what he wanted. And while he did so earned funny looks from the rest of his team of time travelers.

Jiraiya looked at the dog lover and grinned then asked, "What do you need junior?" In an amused tone as he let Tsunade go and looked down at the shorter male.

"Why do all of you refur to Naruto as a 'she'? When we know that Naruto is a boy." Kiba asked curiously. All of the Anbu looked at him then busted out into hysterical laughter. _Why indeed._ Jiraiya thought as he regained a measure of control and wiped the tears from his eyes.

Kiba and the others all looked from one laughing Anbu to another and waited for one of them to answer. Itachi was the one to stop laughing and answer Kiba's question with a grin. "Because, Kitsune _is_ a girl."

"What?!" Sakura and Ino both shrieked at the same time. Their voices could be heard for miles.

After which Sai said happily, "I told you all he was a girl!"

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Uzu jumped from one tree branch to the next as she unfolded the small piece of paper that she had gotten from Sarutobi when she had stopped off at the tower to tell him that she needed to hunt; with unsteady hands and almost missed the next tree limb. _Damn it concentrate. You've done this before._ She silently berated herself. She was such a mess that she had been ignoring the signs that her body had been giving her, trying to tell her that she was almost at the point of no return. She quickly read the small note and a grim smile crossed her pretty face. Making her look similar to Orochimaru when he smiled. Creepy as hell. Still the old man had come through for her again, the note he had given her gave the exact number and location of her next meal. Three was usually pushing things when she hunted but she doubted it would matter all that much this time.

She licked her dry lips as she neared the clearing where several rouge ninja's had been spotted camping out. Her stomach cramped painfully as she picked up the scent from their unwashed bodies. And the dark side of her took control. She could hardly wait. 


	10. the price she pays

Uzu's attack was swift and vicious as she dropped down from one of the trees above her prey and slit his throat as she kicked his legs out from under him with a shadow clone, and slammed his upper body against the tree behind him, and covered the spurting wound with her mouth as the dying man struggled to get away from her. It was no good. She was too strong and he could'nt break her grip as he tried again and again to try and call for help. But due to the wound on his neck nothing more than a gurgling sound excaped him as she sucked on the wound and could'nt help the blissful moan that excaped her as his warm blood hit her tongue. Filling her mouth with the tasty liquid, until some of it leaked out of the corners of her mouth to run and drip down her chin and neck; before she swallowed. Gods she was hungry. And his blood tasted so fucking good, she wished only momentarily, that she could find a way to get around the killing and simply feed from people who were alive, but subdueing and keeping a living prey;unfortunatly that would require far to much time and energy. It took under five minutes for her prey to die in her grasp, with her drinking at his throat in hard, greedy pulls, until she could'nt get anymore from the wound, and let his body fall from her hands.

_Oops. _She thought as his body made a soft thudding sound. Looking around to make sure that his friends had'nt heard the sound she then gave the dead man a brief sorrowful look. He had been handsome, with his aqua eyes, tan skin and exotic features. His hair was semi long and shaggy, the tips just barely touching his shoulders, his build was similar to Kakashi's. But it was his age that made her almost give in to the angry and frustrated tears that were even now threatening ot spill. He had been so young, with his entire life ahead of him; he was no older than twenty, and she had killed him in cold blood.

_I really am a monster._ She thought as she knelt down beside his corpse and used her kunai to make the sergical incisions over the organs that she was going to eat. The kidneys, liver, and the heart. They had the most nutrietion for one like her. And they were the ones that didn't make her puke soon after eating them like some of the others did. It took another minute or so to sever all of the nerves and veins, attached to the mans heart as she pulled it free and once again took to the trees where she sat curled up with her knees to her chest, crying as she sank her teeth into the tissue one bite after another until all of the organs were gone, while she stood and went in search of the others; she chanted to herself mentally, _I wish I were dead, I wish I were dead, I wish I were dead. _

Because that was the only way the horror would ever stop.

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It was dark when Kakashi woke up from his nap laying face down on Uzu's bed and checked the time. She had been gone for almost six hours and even though he had'nt been really, really worried before he was certainly getting there now since she had yet to come home. Shortly after she had left everyone had sat around exchanging stories about Uzu, and her other self. And what an eye opener that had been for everyone.

Tsunade had told them about how she had saved Hizashi from certain death (because they were really curious about him still being alive) by sergically altering the face of a dead Hyuuga man that had not been identified, and had used a genjutsu on the ones who were going to kill Hinata's uncle; to buy herself some time to put the body in place and pull out several bags of blood that she had stolen from the hospital and torn the bags open and went crazy then, used another genjutsu to make the exicutioners think that the deed was done as she dragged Hizashi practically kicking and screaming into the night. To which Kakashi had countered with the story of team seven's first mission as a three man cell. It was'nt quit as great as Tsunade's but it made everyone smile.

To which Jiraiya quickly told them all about the little phase she had gone through as a toddler. She had set up traps everywhere and how one time he had been trying to give her a bath when he had accedentally set one of her traps off and ended up hanging by a ceiling fan in nothing but his boxers screaming for help. And when The third Hokage and Itachi had come to save him they too had set off another trap that had each of them screaming for help, cursing, and trying to excape while the toddler had watched from the side lines while sucking her thumb. To which Tenzou had countered with the story about her run in with Orochimaru, when they had been on their first mission together.

And how the first thing that she had done to him was rip his arm off and start beating him with it. Causing Jiraiya to whistle then say, "Well, thats no real suprise. He did try to kill her about a year ago after all."

This certainly caught everyone's attention. Especially Sakura who was now in her dog with a bone mode. "What do you mean?" she asked in a threatening tone that made Sai automatically get up and change seats with Shizune who gave the boy a funny look.

Jiraiya looked from her face to Kakashi's and everyone else's. Even Tsunade was glaring at him. "Yeah, Raiya. What do you mean?" She hissed between clenched teeth. How dare he keep something like that from her! Jiraiya's face paled almost to the same color as his hair and he quickly begain to talk, trying to avoid being beaten by Tsunade for as long as possable no doubt.

"About a year ago we recieved a warning about a village that might make a move to destroy the leaf village to expand their territories. During that time many of the Anbu were being used to keep tabbs on Uzu, but when the threat was recieved everyone that had been watching and protecting her was pulled away to help defend the village if it became nessisary-" Jiariya started as Tsunade cracked her knuckles threateningly.

"For almost three weeks we watched the gates, fully prepaired for a fucking invasion that could have wiped us all out. And for three weeks nothing happened. Sarutobi begain to get suspicious, and called everyone in for a head count and to check on the where abouts of everyone in the village. It several days but everyone was accounted for except for Orochimaru, and Uzu. When Sarutobi found out that the two were missing he became furious, and sent out several teams to locate them. That took another few hours, when one of the teams finally found his hide out they were met with the most horrific sight. Uzu lay on a metal table bound and gagged, there were knives, senbon kneedles and many other things there with her blood on them, The bastard had been trying to extract some of the kyuubi's power from her through torture. He was totally convinced that she was the key to immotality." Jiraiya sighed and buried his face in his hands for a moment and took his time choosing his next words.

"I was one of the ones that Sarutobi asked to go with him to get her. He said that if bad came to worse then the least we could do was retrive her body and give her a proper funeral since we were'nt sure how long she had been in his care. When we got there Orochimaru was standing over her with a bloodly scalple. She was barely breathing. He had sergically removed her eyes, several of her organs, half of her right lung was missing, so was one of her arms and legs, just above the elbow and knee. I dont remember what was said, or who did what, all I could manage to do was watch the rise and fall of her chest as she struggled to breath. All I remember thinking was that we had failed to protect her in such a big way. If she lived she would probably hate us. And if by some chance that she didn't hate us; then she was too good for us." He paused for a moment before continuing.

"When everything had regenerated, and been reattached she slipped into a coma, and stayed in it for two months before she woke up, and she looked at us; me and Sarutobi both and asked us, why we didnt come to help her when she had called out for us until her voice gave out. We later determined that some of the villagers had been hired by Orochimaru to smuggle her out of the village and deliver the warning to Sarutobi about the other village. So.....he had had her for almost a month. Me and the old man went out one night and got drunk and went back there and burned the place to the ground. We even tried to have her mind wiped several times, but she still remembers. And we still have nightmares about it. So really it is'nt suprising that she tried to beat him to death with his own arm. Frankly I would pay to see it happen. And if she catches it on film then me and Sarutobi would be the first ones in line to buy the DVD." Jiraiya growled as he laced his fingers together with Tsunade's, trying to draw comfort from the slight contact.

everyone was quiet for a while before itachi tried to lighten the mood by telling everyone about when he had been charged with babysitting Uzu and his little brother, and how the moment he had introduced the two Uzu had called Sauske an Uke, and then grabbed his arm and flipped him into the families fish pond right in front of his mother and father, while he laughed. Thus sparking their friendly rivalry. Everyone looked horrified. His story had lightened the mood a bit but it still was'nt enough, so lee jumped in and told everyone about his dojo, and how she had ended up tecnically his first challenger and how she had kept running from him so that she would'nt have to fight him but ended up doing so in the end anyway.

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It was about that time as he was pulling his shoes on when the door opened and he saw Uzu stagger into the room, close the door, and let her back slide down the wall until she sat on the floor. Kakashi stopped trying to put his shoes on in leaue of getting some answers about her behaivior earlier. She sat half in the shadows half in the moonlight with her head resting on her knees, which were drawn up to her chest. Her long silvery blond hair hung in her face, hiding it like a viel so that he could'nt see her face.

Walking across the room he stood in front of her and nearly gave in to the urge to nudge her with his foot, as he glared down at her. He would be honest with himself he was angry, hurt, and worried. Why had'nt she told him about her close encounter with Orochimaru? What the hell was going on with Kyuubi? Was there anything he or the others could even do to help?

She sighed softly and whispered in a hoarse voice, "What are you doing here, Kakashi?"

Okay, now he was a little offended. Here he had been so worried about her that he had holed himself up in her room waiting for her and had refused to leave even when Iruka had threatened to beat the shit out of him, and she wanted to know why he was there. Well, the hell if he knew....

"I was worried about you." he said as he dropped to his knees in front of her and was suddenly assaulted by the overwhelming smell of freshly spilled blood. A lot of freshly spilled blood. _Oh god. _He thought as he tentivly reached out and used his fingertips to raise her chin until she was looking at him, or rather right through him. Her eyes were glassy, and her skin was paler than it had been hours ago, and she was cold to the touch. But that was only half of what frightened him. The other thing that had his heart twisting painfully in his chest was the blood spattered on her face, running down her chin, staining her neck and her shirt.

"Baby what happened?" he asked knowing that whatever her answer was he would stay with her. There was no way that he could ever leave her after seeing the desolet look on her face before she started to cry, and tell him things that she had never told anyone before. The true price she paid for being a vessel to a demon.

He listened to her quietly, all the while hating himself and silently wishing that the Fourth Hokage ahd let the demon wipe the whole damn village out. He listened to the price that she paid to continue her own life and felt his heart breaking for the first time since Obito's death.


	11. kakashi's vow

Sakura was seething. She had been since the little pow-wow between the time traveling team, and the Anbu. And she was'nt the only one pissed. Hearing of their best friend's capture, and torture was the last damn straw. She and the others had been huddled together for a while now trying to think of a way to get rid of the snake bastard once and for all. How dare that creepy son of a bitch lay his filthy hands on Uzu! Even Hinata had mentioned how much she wanted to tear the crazed sanin apart and spread what was left of his body around like little itty-bitty pieces of confetti. And everyone had to admit, that idea in particular did have a great deal of merit. And it sounded like fun too. So far though every plan they came up with didn't seem.....visious and underhanded enough to fit his crimes though. Every plan thus far lacked a certain murderous flare. And as invintive as the kids were they just didn't have that murderous flare that their plans were so clearly lacking. They were'nt cruel enough, or sadistic enough; no they needed the help of a pro. _But who?_ Sakura wondered as the boys all finished working out their latest plan, and cursed. They were thinking of Orochimaru as someone who was still humane, when he was just another monster. They needed someone well versed in the slow and deliberate destruction of men. Someone without a conciense. Someone who could make even Jiraiya, Itachi, Anko, Tsunade, and Kakashi piss themselves and beg for mercy. They needed the touch of a truly frightening man; like.....

"Iruka!" Sakura yelled causing Kiba, Lee and Sai to jump nearly out of their skin as she grabbed Ino's wrist and the two of them hurried to the door before looking back at their frozen friends.

"Well, are you all coming or not?" Ino snapped as Hinata, Sai (who feared being hit by Sakura again for no reason) Lee, Shino, and Tenten all got to their feet and quickly fololowed without Kiba since he was a little busy tripping over his own feet and yelling,

"Hey wait for me! Guys? Hey, your leaving a man behind!" as he ran after them. Sakura looked over her shoulder and gave everyone a very creepy smile. Iruka was perfect for their search and destroy mission. The snake bastards days were numberd for sure if he helped them.

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Iruka sat at his kitchen table staring dispassionatly at the blue prints of his perfect murder plan, complete with pretty little illistrations of someone dying slowly and painfully. It was so pretty that he was tempted to put a sticker, like he gave to his students; on it and hang it on his refrigerator. It was just that good. The plans detailed the process from begining to end beautifully. Even a three year old could follow the step by step instructions, and get away with it. But there was just one problem, the plans before him were the same plans that he had made to deal with a certain person who pissed him off in a major way. Hatake Kakashi, oh how even thinking of that man made him livid!

But since hearing Jiraiya tell of Uzu's increadably close call earlier with Orochimaru, he had come home to his tiny apartment, fixed himself some coffee, and put on some music to help him think of all things bloody and gorey, so most of the shit he had listened to was Korn, Manson, ICP, and some others that he could'nt remember as he had pulled his carfully laid plans out of their hiding place, because he was'nt stupid enough to leave them out so that visitors could see just how much of a phycotically sadistic streak he had. He had pulled out his favorite plan to date, and tweaked it just enough to suit his dark thoughts. However it still pissed him off a bit that he had had to tweak it in the first place since the plans had been made a week ago for Kakashi's untimely demise. But at the moment Orochimaru had his attention more than Hatake.

Truth be told he wished he could simply kill both men and bury them in a shallow grave filled with flesh eating acid. _But that would'nt be any fun. _He wanted them alive when he put them in their shallow graves. Yeah, that sounded good. Bury them alive. Let them gasp for air and try to call for help. _That would amuse me greatly. _He thought as his hands tightened around his cup until the glass splintered and shattered in his hands soaking them and his lap with the scalding hot liquid, causing him to yelp and fall back, chair and all. His foot hitting the underside of his kitchen table and almost dragged it down on top of him as he muttered about 'fucking snakes, and worthless wolves' under his breath as he tried to regain his composure and looked at what was left of his coffee cup as someone knocked at his front door. He sighed and momentarily forgot about his murder plans, and stood up and went to answer the door all the while thinking, _Something must be wrong with the quality of the glasses that I buy, I lose more cups that way._

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Kakashi pulled Uzu into his lap and wrapped his arms around her as she cried. He had known that the price for being a demon vessle was high, but the things that she had told him were.....horrific. It was almost too much for him to handle, but then again he had sworn that he would save her this time around, and he was'nt about to let what she had reveiled to him about how she had survived stop him now. He was angry, sure but not at her. He could understand how she felt about having to hunt. She had never had a choice about it, she was simply along for the ride. She had'nt told him if her need to hunt and prey on humans was a current thing or if her, he would just call it her condition; had always been there. Lying in wait.

How had she delt with it before? Had she always been like this after hunting? Had anyone ever tried to help her find a way out? Where had she been finding her prey? How often did she need to hunt? Okay, he had questions, but right now he had more important things going on in his head than the simple need to have his questions answered. Uzu needed an anchor of some sort or she was going to suffer a phycotic break. So for the time being, he would stay with her and do what he could to keep her from suffering so much. He could'nt take the pain and guilt away, but he could distract her with more pleasent things until her ordeal was over. A few things were already pop-ping into his head. Ideas on how to distract her from her suffering.

He could start by cleaning her up, and staying with her while she slept. God knew she was going to have nightmares from this shit. _Our fault. All our fault. _He thought as he took her small face in his hands and leaned down to follow one of the trails her tears had made down her face; starting at her chin and moving up to the corner of her eye with his tongue. Tasting the salt of her tears, mixed with the sweetly matalic taste of her victumes blood on her skin as he swore that she would never hunt alone again.

He repeated the action several times to remove the offending stain from her skin befoore he tangled his fingers in her silken hair and lightly tugged her head back so that he could remove the red from her throat. His mis matched eyes glowing softly in the darkness as he sucked the pale skin over her jugular vein into his mouth. He fely the slight vibrations of her throat under his mouth when she whimpered. Her body suddenly feeling warmer than it had a moment ago as Kakashi lifted his head and pressed his lips to hers in a gentle kiss. His poor kitsune, was tired, and sorely in need of a bath and rest. As irritating as it was he knew that he could pick up from here again tomorrow before practice with the team.


	12. sky might fall

Uzu was considerably calmer three days later when she and the rest of her team met for practice. However they had'nt even started when an Anbu from the Hokage's personal guard appeared with a scroll, and with in it were the contents of their first field mission together; under their little Kitsune.

"What is it?" Sakura asked as she and everyone else gathered around Uzu to hear what was written down in the scroll. Uzu was quiet for several seconds too long before she opened the scroll and bared her teeth in a silent snarl. That fucking bastard, Orochimaru was on the move again. Her red eyes skimmed over the orders. Several villages already destroyed. Over eight hundred innocent villagers dead, and atleast four hundred more missing and unaccounted for. Their orders were to go to the next village, a day in a half from the leaf village and get as many people out as they could before Orochimau hit. If they got there after he hit the place they were to look for survivors. Uzu's eyes skimmed over the second part of their orders, or rather the ones meant for her and her alone; kill Orochimaru and return home. She read and reread the scroll before closing it. She wanted to tell everyone to go home, but that would be pointless, and too many people who needed saving would die.

Everyone was looking at her expectantly. She could lie to them and simply tell them that they are to search and rescue anyone they come across and then ditch them in a village a few miles from the one Orochimaru is going to hit. By the time they figured out that she was'nt there she would be on her way home. But she could'nt do that. If she did and they tried to help her.....

She gritted her teeth until her jaw ached. She was fucked either way, and so were they; unless she could get them to understand that if they tried to butt in they would die. "Well, Kitsune? We're waiting." Tsunade said with a smile.

"Orochimaru has been destroying villages along the border a day in a half from here. There is a village that has'nt been hit yet, you are to evacuate the villagers. However if we get there too late then your orders are to search for any and all survivors and do what you can for them before we bring them back here. If you encounter Orochimaru, then I want you to retreat. _None_ of you are to engage him in a fight under any cercumstance, fighting him is my job. Do all of you understand?" Uzu said clearly as she looked form one face to another before continuing to speak,

"If any of you think that you cant do your job for this mission; then I want you to stay here. None of you have to take this mission if you do not feel like you are ready to do so." Once she fell silent everyone stared at her like she had lost her mind, others understood her sentiments far too well.

"I go where you lead me, Captian." Iruka said as he stepped forward. Itachi looked at her then stepped foward.

"I'm going. You'll need a medic to tend to your wounds." Sakura said as she stepped forward. Tsunade and Shizune both smiled and stepped forward.

Kiba gave her his usual smile and said, "I cant leave you by yourself. That's like cruelty to animals or something."

Sai looked at her an emotionless smile, "Well, it is bad to leave friends behind in a time of crisis. I guess I should go."

Shino stepped forward followed by Tenzou, and Kakashi; leaving only Jiraiya, Anko, Hinata, Ino, Lee, and Tenten.

Lee and Tenten were about to step forward when Uzu put her hand up causing the two to stop in their tracks and look at her confused by her actions.

"I want all of you to stay here." Uzu said as she took in the pained expressions of her friends and adoptive father. Jiraiya she understood very well why he had'nt stepped forward. Orochimaru and he had once bee friends, brothers even. Watching her kill him would be too much to ask. The same went for Anko, Orochimaru had been her first love, and deep down she still held on to that love.

"What? Why?!" Tenten, Sakura, Lee, Kiba, and several others all asked in unison. Their voices betraying their anger, and disbelief at her actions. Which to them was like saying that the others were'nt good enough to take part in the mission, but that was'nt the way she was thinking. She had no doubts that they were capable, and even competent at their abilities. But if they went......they would die. There was no two ways around that fate. They had dreams that they had to live to fulfil just like the others, however those dreams were pointless if they all died in the fight with Orochimaru.

Hinata would never grow up to be the revolutionary that would free the branch family of the main families rule, and go on to become a mother of three wonderful kids.

Lee would never become the famed green hurricane; named after his Lee hurricane. And marry Sakura.

Tenten would never fulfil her dream of being a great kinochi like Tsunade.

Ino would never become the wonderful wife and mother of Chaoji's kids/medic ninja that she had become later on.

If Uzu let them go none of those things would happen, and Sakura, Sai, Shino, Kiba, Kakashi and she would be lost without them. She could'nt let that happen even if they hated her for it. Their hatred was something that she could live with. Their untimely deaths were'nt.

"Tell us why we cant go!" Ino yelled as she grabbed the blond by her shirt collar. A look of fury on her pretty face. Uzu swallowed past the painful lump in her throat and tried to calm herself enough to keep her voice from shaking as she looked Ino in the eyes and lied,

"Because your too weak." While her heart ached at seeing the looks of disbelief and sorrow on her friends faces as Ino's fingers slowly released their grip on her shirt and her arm fell uselessly to her side. _I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Please, I didn't mean it!_ She thought as Lee looked at her, he looked crushed. Noone had ever called him weak before. Esspecially his friend, Naruto.

Everyone even Kakashi was stunned by the cruel words that Uzu had just said. All of them waiting for her to smile and say, "Just kidding." but that didn't seem to be the case. Hinata looked at her idol and felt her heart break a little at hearing those words come from the one person that had never purposly hurt any of them before in his- er her life. But there was something about the way that she was acting that Hinata realised she was using to hide something from them. Those horrible words were being used to drive them away out of......worry, concern, fear. Hinata knew anxiaty when she saw it, and Uzu was deeply disturbed by something, and had no intention of sharing the burden.

"I understand, Captian. Be safe." Hinata said with a smile as she put one hand on Lee's shoulder, and another on Ino's. She would let the blond get away with saying those words to them just this once. After the group left Hinata looked at the others who were curious about why she had smiled, and told the blond that she understood. Hinata stood in the clearing watching Uzu's back as she disappeared from sight before turning to them and saying,

"She was lying....when she said that we were weak." She said quietly as she looked at Lee and the others.

"If she was lying then why did she say it in the first place?" Ino demanded angerly, she didn't want to believe that the girl had said the words just to be mean, but she had'nt been able to tell if she was lying.

"She always looks calm like that when she's afraid." Hinata said as she leaned back against the tree behind her. Lee and Tenten excanged a look with Ino.

"Afraid of what? What excuse could she possiably have for saying that to us?" Tenten hissed, she was fairly shaking with rage.

Hinata turned to look at them then said what she truly believed Uzu was afraid of, "She was afraid that we were going to die."

Ino, Lee and Tenten all started to say somethig then stopped. Could Hinata be right? Is that why she had called them weak? She had been trying to save them from suffering such a horrific fate.

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Uzu lept from one tree branch to the next, they were ten miles away from the village and still she didn't answer anyones questions, or even look at them. The guilt of having called her friends weak in front of the others hurting her a little more with each breath that she took. Sakura, Kiba, Shino, Tenzou, and Shizune had'nt spoken to her since she had said those damning words. She hated herself. She always had. But now she really had a reason, she had hurt the very people that she had sworn she would never hurt. Tears slipped down her face as she landed the leapt to another tree limb as Sai looked over his eyes widened as he caught the sparkle of her tears in the sunlight, and gave a grim smile. Ah, now he understood. And as soon as they stopped for a break he would clue in the others so that they would'nt hate her, or be angry anymore. _I really cant leave you alone, can I, Naruto._


	13. sai's confession

They made it to a clearing more than half way to the appointed village that Orochimaru was going to hit before stopping for a while to rest and eat something. Sakura and the others still were'nt speaking to her. With the exception of Kakashi, Tenzou, and Sai her team was horrablly off balance, or rather dynamically challanged. Tsuande understood why she had said those heartbreaking things to Lee, Ino, Hinata, and Tenten, and Itachi and Iruka had caught on to her ploy, it had taken a little longer for Kakashi, and Tenzou to figure it out. Sai however had'nt been fooled. So while Sakura and the others were going about fixing their base camp for the next hour or so, Uzu had started to ask if she could help only to recieve a glare from Kiba, Sakura, and Shizune. Shino said nothing as he wondered away from the camp a little to silently observe his friend. Okay he would admit, he was a bit pissed at Uzu's attitude towards Hinata and the others, but he was curious as to why she had pushed them away. It was true that they were tecnically weaker than the rest of the group, esspecially Hinata, Lee, and Ino; still she didn't have to say that they were weak in such a cold and uncaring way.

Uzu sighed and stuffed her hand in her pockets and walked a little ways away from the camp in the oppisit direction from Sakura, Shizune, and Kiba who were all silently watching her back as she walked. Sakura sighed and watched her teamamte as she slowly vanished from sight. She knew that something had been bugging the girl and also that she felt badly for speaking to the others like she had. And she was'nt mad at her, not really anyways. She knew that Uzu had her reasons, she just wnated to know what her reasons were. Kiba and Shizune both felt the same way even if they didn't say it. _Why does she feel that she has to do everything alone? What is she hiding from us? Is what she came back to stop really so bad that she feels that she cant trust us?_

Sai followed Uzu into the woods and watched her as she sat down next to a stream adn stared at the crystaline waters. "Sai, what are you doing?" Uzu muttered tiredly as the older boy stepped out of his hiding place, which was'nt really a hiding place at all. It was a tree, a vine and a birds nest, and that was it.

"Hn, I honestly thought that I was hidden, oh well." Sai said as he walked over to his captian and sat down on the rock beside her.

"I was following you. You've been upset since before we left the village. I've.......been worried." Sai said with his usual emotionless smile. Uzu glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and huffed slightly. Just who the hell did he think he was, saying things like that to her. It was her job to worry. Not his.

"........" Sai reached out and put his hand on her head and grinned at her shocked look.

"I know that you said those things to spare them from something we cant see. And the very fact that you can see things like that worry me; I dont know how to help you. And the others do not understand, still I will not leave you stuck like this. I will protect you any way I can." Sai said as he ruffled her hair affectionatly.

"Why?" Uzu asked curious about his motives. Sai just smiled.

"Because we're friends." he said gently as he started to stand up. Uzu narrowed her eyes at him. That was'nt the real reason he was fixating on her. So what was?

"Why?" she asked a little louder this time making it sound like a demand. Catching the older boy off guard before he turned to look at her and gave her a genuine smile.

"Because your the one who changed my world. I'll see you back at camp. Try not to get into any trouble until then." Sai said as he walked away.

Passing Shino as he went. Shino said nothing to the older boy since now he understood everything a little bit more. So that was it, he had forgotten what Yukimaru had said about those who contained the tailed demons. _"They can see the fate of all living things." _

_I understand._ Shino thought as he smiled behind the collar of his jacket as he fell into step beside Sai.

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They reached the village later that night after breaking camp, and arrived on the outskirts; just in time for the first explosion to rock the tiny village, sending it's people into a frenzied panic as they all rushed out of their homes and ran for the front gate with their children and precious posessions in tow; only to meet with the crystaline blade that a younger Guren had made. The bodies of thirty something citizens lay at her feet, some dead, and others dying. The ones who excaped her exicutioners blade ran in the oppisit direction where they met their ends in flames, as they were herded into sheds then locked inside and burned alive.

"Everyone remember what I told you and go!" Uzu yelled as she and the others parted ways, hopfully it would'nt be the last time they saw each other.

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Yukimaru ran across the blood stained ground just as snow begain to fall. He had to find her. He had to find his 'mother' and warn her about the changes in history that were caused by her appearance in the current time line. He had left the cold corpse of his real mother only a little while ago since he had'nt had the heart to leave her until her body had gone cold, indicating to him that her soul had moved on from this world. _Where is she? She has to be here. But where?_ He was tempted to set up a trap of sorts to draw her out and trap her, but he knew that she would just slap him for slowing her down when she had to stop the villagers from being completely wiped out.

He rounded a corner and nearly swore when he saw Orochimaru standing there blocking his way with a man dangling from his neck in his hand, stuggling to breath as he kicked and clawed at teh snake sanin's arm in an effort to get away. Turning before he could be seen he started to run in another direction and was thrown through a brick wall when something beside him blew up. He hit something hard before landing on the ground uncouncious. His last thought before he slipped away was, _Fucking snake nin. _He hoped that Uzu tore the man's dick off and stuffed it down his freakishly white throat.

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Yukimaru was missing. _Fuck did we get here too late? Had Orochimaru already taken off with the boy that she was going to raise as one of her own?_ Or had he been killed along with so many others? _Come out, come out; where ever you are. _She thought as she jumped from one roof to another before spotting her prey. Snake nin dead ahead. _Finally. _She thought as she landed on the roof above the man's head and reached for her weapon of choice, not that she really needed it to kill him, but it really just would'nt do for the others to die in a chakra explosion with Orochimaru. She had more control than that, thenk god. Now if only she could find.......aha! Damn brat was unconcious, no wonder she had had trouble finding him, he was partually covered by plaster, tin, and some really highly flameable shit. If she didn't hurry he would burn to death when the house went up.


	14. the crosses we bear

hello! we are going to go through a five day time skip since i suck at writing fight scenes.

* * *

Uzu lay in her bed trying not to move, because of the searing pain in her lower abdomon, was steadily working it's way up to her chest forcing the air from her lungs in a hiss. She was dying. She knew that and yet she could'nt really bring herself to get out of bed and care all that much about stopping herself from dying. Damn Orochimaru had fucking gutted her, and used some weird jutsu on her before he had died. Laughing of all things, what had he found so fucking amusing anyways? She was'nt laughing, well not any more any ways. Her voice had given out days ago. And what was truly disterbing was that instead of returning to the village she had gone to her sanctuary to suffer. Honestly she had heard Jiraiya, Tsunade, Sai, Kakashi, Hizashi, Anko, and the others calling for her, she knew that they were searching for her, but again she really could'nt bring herself to care all that much. Probably because if they found her and saved her, she would have to hunt again. She gritted her teeth until she was sure that she heard several teeth snap under the pressure as she rode out the fire ball of agony currently running rampant through her body and was suddenly very glad that the others had'nt found her yet.

Counting slowly to a hundred; she got to seventy two when the pain abated some what, leaving her panting, and gasping for air while she could. She could alredy feel her blood thickening, and her organs turning to goo inside of her body, it would'nt be much longer now. She let her eyes drift closed, and felt herself drifting away into the unknown, and didn't hear the third Hokage and Iruka enter the small room and try to get her to respond to their voices. She could hear them but only at a distance, her mouth felt like cotton, her breathing more labored. Sarutobi glanced at Iruka and gave him a quick order to get Tsuande, and tell the others that their captian had been found. Iruka barely heard him speak as he stared down at his captain. Oh god she looked like she was already dead.

He thought as tears gathered in his eyes, threatening to spill; as his mind taunted him with visions of Uzu's small body lying in a white coffin, surounded by white lilies. He suddenly felt like he could'nt breath as Sarutobi hit him to get his attention and barked the order again; before watching the younger man back away and then take off running down the hall. His chest ached painfully as he ran down the hall and out into the woods, where he could still hear the others calling for their leader to come home. How would they live without her? He wondered and deep down he knew the answer. They would'nt live without her. They would all die with her the same moment that she took her last breath.

Sarutobi looked down at the girl with a sad expression on his face. He rarely admitted to making mistakes but he had to own up to this one. It had been a mistake to ask Uzu to fight Orochimaru, and expect her to walk away unscathed. He had made a lot of mistakes when it came to the girl, but he had never meant for her to suffer like this. He knew very well the price she paid for being a demon container. Knew that she needed special care to survive, and of late he had begun to wonder just where that special care was, and the price she paid for it was nearly as unbarable as seeing her writhing in agony.

Sitting down on the side of the bed he quickly rolled up his shirt sleeve, and made a split second decision as he stared at the vein in his wrist. It was farly decent in size, and he was'nt so frail that he could'nt withstand a little blood loss. And if she ended up killing him, then so be it. She would make a better Hokage than him anyways. Besides it was time he paid a price for turning a blind eye to her suffering for so long. He didn't really care what happened to him as long as she lived, everything would be fine. Uzu was a demon in almost every sense of the word, but she was the demon who loved the village and it's people, and deep down inside he had fully known the night Kakashi, Shizune, Tenzou, and the children had stood before him asking their questions about Uzu's situation that she had survived one thousand three hundred years just to stop them from dying out. She had come back to a past she could'nt avoid, and was suffering through it all again to save them all. That was why he had named her the next Hokage if he should die.

The title could have gone to anyone...but noone else would have gone to such lengths to save their precious people, and thats how he knew that today would be the last day that he would act as the Hokage.

"I leave their lives in your capable hands, child. I know that you will not fail in your mission." He said gently as he kissed her sweat dampened skin, and put the kunai that he had held in his hand to his neck as he leaned over her mouth, and gave one last smile as he ran the blade across his throat, and started to pour everything he had into the girl under him.

Did he have regrets. Yes, many of them. But there was no shame in sacrificing his life if it would save the future of everyone and everything he held dear.

* * *

By the time Iruka hit the clearing where the others had stopped to take a breather before trying again to locate their leader; Iruka was hysterical as he crashed through the underbrush and appeared in the clearing, looking like he would like nothing more than to fall down and cry. He looked at Tsunade and started to speak really fast without pausing for air, inbetween racking sobs that shook his whole body as he grabbed the woman's shoulders and babbled.

"Uzu-"

sob-

"found-" another sob followed by a hiccup as tears rolled down his face. Tsunade stared at Iruka and realised that what ever state Uzu had been found in was bad. Very, very bad for the man to be acting like this.

"How bad?" Tsunade asked as she framed the crying man's face in her hands and tried to get him to answer her, Iruka could'nt say it. He opened his mouth, but only a whimper excaped from his mouth. He could'nt say it, because if he said it then it would be true. And he didn't want to believe that it was true. Not this, it was too heart breaking to be true. All he could think about was Uzu had been in agony for almost five days. How she must have screamed, and cried. And tried to heal herself, and now she was going to die. And he just could'nt bring himself to say the words.

He brought his hands up to his face and tried to sink to the ground. But Tsunade was still holding his head in her hands, if he fell to his knees now his neck would break, and he would die. _But that no longer matters. Nothing matters anymore. _A voice in his head said. Jiraiya bared his teeth unable to watch the man act like a small child anymore. So he did the only thing he could think of he grabbed Iruka and slapped him as hard as he could and roared,

"Pull yourself together and answer Tsunade you fool! Tell us where our princess is!" Iruka looked up at the man with a stunned expression on his face, and suddenly seemed much calmer than he had been.

"She's holed herself up in the old asylem. Tsunade......she's dying." Iruka said as tears continued to slip down his face. Tsunade and Jiraiya paled. Kakashi hissed and wanted to strike Iruka again, how dare he waste valuble time that could be used to save Uzu by acting like he was the only one in pain! Itachi, Hazashi, Anko all exchanged a look and took off in the direction of the asylem.

Sakura looked at Sai who was gritting his teeth. Lee made a fist and looked at Tenten, Kiba, Hinata, Ino and Shino, all of them had grim expressions on their faces as they all started after the two sanin toward the asylem, and all of them stopped dead in their tracks when the sound of a blood curtling scream reached their ears. Causing all the animal life in the woods to take flight away from the sound.

"Oh no, no,no,no. Please no." Tsunade muttered as she ran as fast as she could after Jiraiya who had already gone inside, and followed close at his heels as he rounded a corner and pushed a blood spattered door open and skidded to a stop in shock, causing Tsunade to hit his back before moving to go around him and froze at the sight in front of her. The sound of several different footfalls sounding from what seemed like a great distance, as she stared at the girl sitting on the dirty little bed, her ambu uniform had been shreded, the breast plate broken into pieces, there was blood on her left cheek, and even more of it smeared around her mouth, and slipping down her chin and throat, soaking the black of her shirt.

Her small face was pale, and she was holding her hands up in front of her face hypervenilating, as she stared at the crimson stain covering her hands, the body of the third Hokage lay with the head resting in her lap with a smile on his face depite the gaping wound in his neck; he was dead, and she looked up at Tsuande just as the others cleared the room, and met her eyes for a second before, lowering one of her bloody hands as if to touch his face before lifting both of her hands and fisting them in her hair and crying.

Jiraiya walked across the room and carfully moved the body of his former sensei, and studied the wound on his neck for a moment. He needed to be sure that it was self inflicted and as soon as he was satisfied that it was he reached out and picked up his adopted daughter and started to sing softly to her as he moved to leave the room. _Thank you, sensei. Goodbye._ He thought as he walked down the hall with the distraught little girl in his arms, the slight vibrations in his throat, under Uzu's hand comforting her a bit as she tried to sort out what had happened. She had been too weak to inflict a wound on the old man, so that meant that he had died trying to save her.


	15. the new hokage

7:25 a.m.

Kakashi sat by Uzu's bed watching her sleep. Or try to sleep rather, but it looked like her drugged slumber was coming to an end and not a moment too soon since the village now knew about, 1) the third's death. and 2) that Uzu had been named the next hokage. Something that the council and Danzou were trying to find a way out of, but the old man had written everything down so that there were no loop holes. The coucil could'nt nay say the Thirds will on this because of her age, skill level and many other things. While Danzou had already summoned Sai and several others and ordered them to kill Uzu so that the only one left to be Hokage would be him. Apparently this had'nt gone over very well with Sai since he had killed the other assasins, and was currently curled up in a ball on the floor with his back resting against Uzu's bed trying to keep his worry from showing. It would be cute, seeing the once proud Root member cling to Uzu like a life line, if it was'nt for the fact that they were all worried about what would happen next.

Tsunade had treated Uzu several days ago after Jiraiya had taken her from the room where the Third hokage had ended his own life. Everyone had thought it odd that Uzu had been on the brink of death one minute and the next, she was awake, alert, healed and panicing because the old man's blood was smeared all over her. Tsunade and the others had questions. And only he, Sai, Itachi, Sakura, Jiraiya, Shizune, and the rest of the kids knew that what ever had happened, had had almost everything to do with Kyuubi. But he was the only one who knew far more. Yes it was because of Kyuubi. But the old man must have been aware of Uzu's special dietary needs. If she really had been on the brink of death then it only stood to reason that giving all of the blood the old man had would probably save her life, heal her wounds, and buy her time until she was strong enough to hunt again. And Kakashi already knew that she would need to hunt, and soon.

She moaned softly and jerked her head to one side, it would'nt be long before she would wake up. Sighing Kakashi sat back in his seat as Sai twisted around and peeked over the top of the bed at her, as the door opened and Sakura, Yamoto, Shizune, Hinata, Ino, Kiba, Shino, Lee, Tenten, Itachi, Anko, Iruka, and Tsunade walked inside and looked at the bed as the girl moved again, this time she was lying on her side, and kicked off the blankets, causing Sai to growl in annoyance as he tried to find his way out of the tangled mess.

"How is she?" Anko asked looking like she was about to cry. The dark circles under her eyes had gotten considerably worse since Uzu had been found.

"Sleeping like the dead. But she should be waking up soon. What's new on the gossip front?" Kakashi asked with a smile, as Sakura and the others shifted nervously back and forth.

"The Third Hokage's will is legit, which means that little girl there-" Tsunade said as she pointed to the twitching girl, then smiled at the child's horrible sleeping form.

"Is really our Hokage now." Kakashi said as he looked at the girl and back at the group as Tsunade smirked almost gleefully. Better the brat than her, right.

Oh shit. Their present situation had him worried a bit more than he had been earlier. Between the council, Danzou, the Uchiha massacure, and the Akutsuki there was no real end of shit that could happen, would happen and should happen. He had nothing against Uzu personally, but he just was'nt sure that she could be Hokage, and not abuse the power....she was tecnically a kid after all. _And now she's our boss, but with bigger guns to support her. _Oh god. He suddenly had the impulse to write his last will and testiment. Itachi stood with his back to the group, jotting down something on a piece of paper, while muttering under his breath,

"My sterio and Cd's will be buried with me, give Sauske a smack in the forhead for every day that he lives until the wound kills him. I never told Cindy Makimura that I wanted her to bear my children, tell Sauske that his dick had to be fifteen feet long to ride her....." Itachi paused and looked over his shoulder when he felt eyes boring into the back of his head.

"What? I know the rest of you are already thinking the same thing, dont get pissed at me because I fucking beat you to it!" he said as he turned back around and started to write again when Sai got to his feet and asked,

"So how long is your penis?" Itachi turned to look at him as Sakura groaned. Not this shit again.

"Sixteen feet. You?" Itachi said with a smirk looking very proud of himself.

Sai grinned and said, "Eighteen feet." Itachi's jaw dropped as his face turned red.

Sakura chose that exact moment to walk over to both young men and size them up before saying, "Well mine is twenty feet, and can wrap around my waist. Now shut the hell up."

It was at that exact moment that Lee looked from one face to another, sice they were all having a friendly comitetion he would show them who really had the bigest dick.

"My youthful friends mine is thirty two feet!" And no sooner than the words left his mouth; he dropped his pants to show them. Making everyone in the room scream and hide their eyes in horror.

* * *

1:10 p.m.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Since when have you ever dropped your pants in mixed comany before, Lee! Everyone is so freaked out by what you did that they have all withdrawn into themselves. Just look at Sai and Itachi! They've both lost their will to live! They're useless to me now!" Uzu screamed at the cowering boy as she started to climb out of bed, only to have Kakashi grab her and pull her back down into his lap. She was so pissed at the moment that if he let go of her she just might kill Lee for being so stupid.

Kakashi brushed her hair back from her face as he held her. He chuckled softly as she knashed her teeth and growled at Lee to get out or she would get Sakura and Tsunade to stomp his ass into the ground. The boy paled and scurried out of the room, slamming the door closed behind him as he went.

"Can you beleave him?" Uzu hissed as she leaned back against his chest and mentally counted to ten several times, before the tension finally drained out of her body taking the anger she had felt at Lee's idiocy along with it. Kakashi smiled as he pulled off his mask.

"You have to admit, Gai would be so proud of his little carbon copy." Kakashi said as he rested his chin on the top of her head. She had'nt been told yet that she was the new Hokage. But he found it funny that her method of dealing with her subordinates; was fear. Maybe she would be a decent Hokage after all. She was certainly a great Anbu captian.

"Uzu, about the other day...." Kakashi started to say as she turned to look at him.

"I know. I know what happens next. But there's something that I need to do after I publicly sworn in as the new village leader. And I'll need you and several others with me." Uzu said as she started to chew on her lower lip. Kakashi watched her for a second and almost wondered if he had some sort of lolita complex; she was just so damn cute. He had'nt really known just how cute she was until now.

Tangling his fingers in her silken hair he tipped her head back and pressed his lips against hers. He had to stop her from chewing her bottom lip off after all. "Anything you want, baby. I'm game." he said as she parted her lips enough for him to deepen the kiss. Tomorrow would be her first day as Hokage. He had'nt honestly thought that she would make it to office in his life time, but could'nt exactly find himself bothered by the fact that he would see her wearing the Hokage's robes.

_I bet they'll look adorable on her. _


	16. danzous fall, rise of the lady fifth

Kakashi stood leaning against the wall as Tsunade, Anko, Iruka, Sakura, Hinata, Sai, and Shizune, all flitted around the room trying to get Uzu ready for her swearing in ceramony. Tsunade was going through the closet at a rapid pace trying to find something suitable for the girl to wear during the ceramony, and came across several dresses, and whistled at Iruka to drop what he was doing and help her find a nice dress for her adoptive daughter. Out of curiosity Kakashi meandered over to the closet to check out the prospects, and nearly died while trying not to laugh. Everything was so pink and frilly! Sure there were other colors, like blue's, red's, black, violet, white, and was that one there in the middle butter cup yellow?! But the pink satin dresses stood out far more. Although he would never admit it he was kind of looking forward to seeing her in a dress. But nothing pink for gods sake!

Tsunade picked out several prospects-all pink- and held them up for Uzu to see. "Which one?" she asked happily. Uzu looked at the pink monstrosaties and had to resist the urge to puke.

"None. Burn them." She said as she turned back to Shizune, and Hinata who were styling her hair. Tsunade made an irritated sound and picked out several more and repeated the process. Again they were pink, with the butter cup yellow, and two blues. This time Uzu's eye brow started to twitch and she hissed like a cat. _Okay then._ Kakashi thought as he tried to keep from grinning. At least he knew what kind of girl she was.

By this point Tsunade was starting to lose her temper, when Uzu sighed and stood up. Shizune, and Hinata had just finished styling her hair, which fell down to her shoulder blades in soft waves and curls from an intricate weave on top of her head. Walking over to the closet Uzu peeked inside and witho ut hesitating picked out a white and black pair of dresses and laid them out on the bed. Tsunade sighed and tossed the dresses that she had been holding into a growing pile and turned back to study the two that Uzu had pulled out.

The dresses were an odd sort, a cross between modern fashion, and fashion of centuries past. The black satin had a distinct gothic look to it with the black lace up bodice sleeveless shirt, black lace up fingerless gloves, and skirt that would fall around her knees in the front and her ankles in the back.

The white satin looked almost exactly alike the black one, but the bodice had an intricate design of glittery white thread, and had less lace except at the hem of the skirt, and a few more ribbons instead. The skirt too would fall around her knees in the front and her ankles in the back. Uzu looked at Tsunade and smiled. "I like the white one. The black one suits other purposes."

"White it is! Men get out!" Tsunade yelled as Shizune and Hinata herded the men out of the room. Kakashi gave the girl a hot once over, thinking about all the naughty things he was going to do to her once he had her alone, and left the room whistling a catchy little tune. He could wait until later.

* * *

Tsunade stepped back away from Uzu and blinked. Holy shit, the girl cleaned up nice. Sakura and Hinata grinned. While Shizune and Anko both let out a whistle. Damn now all they had to do was figure out Uzu's secret and they would look good in a dress too.

"Wow. You look like a fucking princess." Anko said as they all turned to the window when they heard someone knock on it. Standing outside was Jiraiya holding a small long velvet box. Tsuande opened the window and let her husband in. The man was going to give Uzu her own set of pearls for the momentus occasion.

"Sorry I'm late, but I had some trouble finding the right one's. Oh my god, who is the little fairy princess? She's cute." He said as he walked across the room and took one of Uzu's small hands in his and kissed it. She smiled at him, a faint blush working its way to her pale cheeks. The man knew exactly what to say to make her feel embarased. Still grinning he pushed the box into her hands and waited for her to open it. Uzu looked at the box for a moment then looked at her adoptive father. What the hell was this? She wondered as he motioned for her to open it. She frowned slightly and carfully pulled the box open and blinked in suprise. There resting on the velvet was a strand of white perfectly round pearl necklace with a silver clasp, and a pair of silver, diamond and drop pearl earrings. Smileing she lightly touched the lovely gift. They were stunning, and would look good on her.

"Thank you dad." she said gently as she finally managed to look away from the gems. Jiraiya smiled and took the box from her and placed the necklace around her neck and fastened it into place as she put the earrings on. And looked at her reflection. _Perfect. _She thought as she grabbed the white Hokage robes and smirked as she walked out the door closely followed by the others, it was time to face the people.

* * *

two hours later-

The welcoming party that the citizens and the shinobi had put together to welcome her into her role as the village leader was fantastic, the music, the food, the drinks, the decorations; everything had been put together rather haistily but it still made a lasting impression on Uzu. She had been mingling with everyone for a while now and had had several people walk up to her and introduce themselves. And as always she had smiled and warmly greeted them and asked if there was something that they needed. And again the shinobi all blushed and started to stutter about how there was nothing that they needed they had just wanted to see what kind of person she was. She had grinned and asked them jokingly if she was making a bad impression. To which the shinobi had all paled and shook their heads and left, as if they were afraid of her or something. It was'nt until she decided to retire for the day that she finally understood why.

Danzou had decided to join the party and was already spreading his poison among her shinobi. The bastard probably thought that he could get her to step aside or something by starting a fight with her publicly. _Well game on bitch._ She thought after ordering a group of Anbu and hunter nins to go blow the Root headquarters to bits, and she made her way across the floor to where the man was sitting.

"Why if it is'nt our young Hokage. Is there something I can do for you child? Or are the pressures of leading the village already too much for your dainty little shoulders to bear." the man said in a falsly kind tone, but Uzu could hear the venom in his words. She smiled sweetly,

"Not at all. I love the work. I just came over here to tell you that as of tomorrow, I expect your Root orginization to disband completely. Because I am stripping you of your council seat and your title's. If you fail to comply I will do it for you. Then I will exile you to the farthest, coldest, most hellish pit I can find. And you will live out the last few years of your life, without power, cursing my name. Do I make myself clear?" She asked as she gave him her coldest most malviolent look as she released a little bit of killing intent, causing everyone in the room to stop what they were doing and listen to the last little bit of the conversation. Everyone caught the dangerous look on Danzous face as he slowly rose to his full height and hissed at the child.

"You better think carefully about this, girl. This is'nt a game that you can win." The man growled at her. Uzu just smirked at him as a loud explosion rocked the building, causing everyone in the room to look out the window, across the village an old abandoned building had fallen victim to a firy demise, as the group that she had sent to blow the Root headquarters up returned and whispered in her ear. No causlties, like she had ordered. Lovely.

Danzou looked from the window to the girl in disbelief. His headquarters. His Root members. All of it was gone. "I win. Please take Danzou-chan to the holding cells, and take his gurads with him, they will be leaving in the morning to go to Antarctica. Goodbye, war monger." Uzu said as she turned and started to walk away as Danzou was grabbed by several Anbu, the man begain to kick and scream like the lunitic he was. Threats of Uzu's death falling from his lips like curses.

The crowd parted for her like the red sea, she had a satisfied smile on her face as she walked across the room and caught Kakashi already waiting for her at the door, he lifted a brow at her, and shook his head. Who knew she would actually manage to take out the Root headquarters? Not even the Third Hokage had managed to do that.

"Feel better now?" He asked as he walked beside her down the hall. She gave him an innocent look. Making him laugh. Oh yeah she felt _tons_ better.

"What if he get free and tries to kill you?" Kakashi asked as he opened the door to her room and followed her inside.

"He and his guards will be dead before morning, due to an unfortunate accidental gas leak. They'll die in their sleep." Uzu said as she jumped up on the bed, Kakashi just gaped at her, jesus christ; the girl was more devious than he gave her credit for. If they died of a gas leak nothing would, or could be tied back to her. It was brilliant. It was genious. It made him hard just thinking about her devious mind at work. Pulling off his mask, and his head band, he made quick work of his vest and shirt before turning to look at her. His mis matched eyes glowing slightly in the light.

She stood and reached up to unzip her dress but Kakashi grasped her wrist and shook his head. He wanted to fuck her with the dress and pearls on.

* * *

Gaara stood at the gate of his village watching the horizen. His pale green eyes glowing as he saw Uzu becoming Hokage and the event that followed with Danzou. She was going to come for him in the next few days, to liberate him from his village. He had been standing at the gate everyday for months, since he had gone back to his begining. Temari and Kankuro no longer knew him, and no longer cared about him like they had before they had died. His chest ached, when ever he saw them glaring at him suspisiously. But he knew that if he asked she would save his siblings, his uncle, and his sensei too. They were the ones he needed with him, and he knew that she would save them too. So he would wait, until she arrived. The truth was that he would wait forever just to see his first friend again.


	17. reunion in the sand

There was sand in her shoes, sand in her hair, and even sand-oddly enough she was'nt sure how it got there- in her underwear. And it was starting to piss her off. They had left the village to head out to Sauna the morning after Danzou had been found dead. Only one of his guards had survived, and was currently recovering under Ino and Shizune's watchful eyes. And after two in a half days of walking in the bigest fucking sand box she had ever seen before in her thirteen hundred years of life, she was begining to lose her temper. Unfortunatly she could'nt destroy anything for fun, because there was nothing out in this hell hole to destroy. She could'nt kill anyone because lets face it she would beat herself up later on if she did. So once again she took her shoes off and emptied them and hopped around on the scalding sand muttering curses, as she tried to put her shoes back on. Not noticing, or maybe just not caring about the funny looks and the silent laughter she was getting from her escourt. Which consisted of Tsunade, Sakura, Hinata, Jiraiya, Itachi, Shino, Lee, Sai and Kakashi. They had maybe a half hour left to go before they got to the sand village.

But truth be told she was'nt sure if she was going to make it. She was after all an old lady. She just was'nt condistioned to be out in such wheather and stay sane. "If I callapse do me a favor and save yourselves. I'd probably die within ten minutes anyways." Uzu said as she looked over her shoulder at the others who were all trying to keep a strait face. Some of then suceeding while others failed. She would have to beat the shit out of the fools later. Praferably after she was some place with air conditioning. Yeah that sounded good.

Kakahsi bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing out loud, the Naruto he had known had always complained about...well every thing that crossed his little mind, but this was just too cute. He had been walking beside Uzu for the better part of an hour listening to her mutter small haku's about how annoying the dessert was to her. And she said some of the most intresting things! Like how she was'nt all that sure but she thought some of the sand was in her panties, and had started to figit, like she wanted to drop trough right there and shed the bothersome clothing and run to the village naked or something.

But he had to give the girl credit, she had considerably more control than the Naruto he had known. Still after an hour of watching and listening to her he finally decided to take pity on her and picked her up, startling her a bit if the small 'eek' sound she made was any indication at all, as he managed to put her on his back, with his hands under her rear to support her weight. Her face turned red as his fingers gave her a slight squeeze as he gave her a cheeky grin.

Tsunade looked over at Kakashi with a raised brow. Just who did the man think he was fooling? It was'nt really a secret that Kakashi had taken Iruka's place in Uzu's bed, since the damn man never left her side for very long. Still it raised many intresting questions. Did he love her? Or was he simply staying with her out of convience? Or was it something else? It was obvious that the girl held a place in his heart, but what place was it? And would it end with a happily ever after? Or would it end in tragidy?

* * *

Kakashi made a soft 'hn'ing noise as Uzu settled against him with her arms around his neck, her little butt resting in the palm of his hand. She gave him a suspsious look, as he stroked the skin under her shorts, earning a squeak from her as she blushed and tried to shift her small body just slightly in what he assumed was an attempt to excape from him. He chuckled as she squirmed in his grasp. Did she really think that trying to move away would help her any? He thought as he scraped his blunt finger nails along the soft skin of one of her inner thighs. Thank god, they were all wearing cloaks to protect them from the sun or he just might find himself in trouble with Tsunade, and Jiraiya for tormenting her even a little.

Uzu made another small sound as she buried her face against his neck. "You evil man. Knock it off." She hissed in his ear, making him chuckle again as he moved the fabric of her shorts back even more until he could touch her through her panties. She made another soft sound, a whimper, that one would have to strain to hear. Smirking behind his mask he stroked her core through her panties and felt her tremble against his back as she gasped, and once again buried her face against his neck. _This is great. _He thought happily as he continued to love her with his hand, until she started to cum and bit him hard on the neck. Making him hiss as the pain shot strait to his groin giving him a raging hard on. Damn, now they both had a problem.

"Just wait until I get you alone-" Kakashi growled at her as he turned his head just enough to look at her. Her face was flushed, and sweaty, her eyes had a glazed lok to them, and her lips were parted slightly as she panted. _Oh god, kill me now._ She was just so...so adorable! It was too much for him to see her looking like she always looked after he had loved her. And he had'nt a chance in hell of getting any relief with the others walking behind them. Quietly he thought for a minute before coming to the conclusion that they could temperallily lose the others in a jutsu created sand storm. Leaning forward some so that Uzu would'nt fall he then cast the others a quick look and started to make the hand signs needed to make a sand storm when Uzu reached out and smacked his hands down, stopping him from putting his plan into motion.

"Dont even." She hissed as she jumped down from his back and ran up to Jiraiya and asked him if he would carry her since Kakashi was too old and feeble of body to continue carrying her. Kakashi's jaw dropped. Did the little brat just call him old and weak? Oh it is on now honey. There was no way in hell he was going to let her get away with that, he would show her just how old and weak he was by fucking her until her cute little legs fell off!

As Jiraiya passed him Kakashi pulled down his mask and mouthed the words, _I'm going to get you. _To Uzu and watched with a satisfied smirk as she shivered and tried to hide her face, as he pulled his mask back up. He was going to have so much fun tormenting her.

* * *

Gaara stood on one of the high cliffs that surrounded the sand village watching the shadowy figures walking up to the gate. A mile. They had a mile left, he could meet them half way he supposed as he turned and vanished. He had been waiting for Uzu to come for him like she had promised him she would before he died. And now here she was! He could'nt begin to tell just how happy he was to see her, which was why when the guards stopped the small caravan at the gate the small boy had run past a group of startled guards with a grin on his face, yelling Uzu's name as Jiraiya put her down on the ground. And had tackled the smaller girl in his haste to get to her before the guards made to try and drag him back into the village.

"Uzu, I'm so happy to see you! I've missed you!" Gaara said as he wrapped his arms around the still stunned girl, and hugged her tightly and made a soft purring sound. The guards all saw the sand biijuu hugging the small blond girl and paled. They didn't know who these people were, but Gaara obviously thought that he knew them. And because of the boys mental instability, once he realised that the girl and her friends were'nt the people that he thought they were he would flip out and kill them.

Lee saw the tiny red head wrapped around the Hokage and grinned at the same time Sakura, Hinata, Shino, and the others did as he ran over to the boy who looked up at him startled then let out a shriek of happiness and pulled the green spandex wearign boy down into a hug too.

"Lee! I thought I would never see any of you again." Gaara said as he looked from one smileing face to another as his vision got blurry and his smile faltered a bit, all of them had died before their time, and like Uzu he had born witness to their destruction. He had missed them all. He hung on to Uzu's hand as she pulled him up off of the ground and smiled sadly Her expression shuttered as the boy greeted the others one by one while he cried. It was so good to see his precious people still remembered him.

"We've missed you too Gaara." Uzu said as she wrapped her arms around the older boy and held him close while he cried. The others looked on worried. It was obvious that like Uzu; Gaara had come back to his begining too. The real question though was what had happened to send him there? And what was it that Uzu had'nt told them yet?


	18. cupids arrow

Uzu and Gaara were walking side by side holding hands, and chatting about everything that had happened since they had been sent back to the begining. Gaara told her of how this time around he had'nt attacked anyone for any reason, and watched Uzu stand on her tip toes and pat him on the head. She told him about being the new Hokage after the third had sacrificed himself to save her when she was dying, and saw the sorrow on the red haired chibi's face, as he squeezed her small hand slightly and finally told her that his brother and sister no longer remembered their affection for him. They had'nt been sent back.

Lee, Kakashi, Sakura, Sai, Jiraiya and the others saw the look of disbelief on Uzu's face before she quickly turned away and told Gaara not to worry, that she would fix things like they had been before. Even if it killed her. It was about that time that a man came running up calling Gaara's name.

_Yoshimaru._ Gaara's uncle, the man who had been put in charge of taking care of him. The one who had nearly killed him when he had died. Gaara saw the calculating look on Uzu's face and smiled slightly. He didn't want his uncle to suffer this time around and had been working on a way to save him, and his two siblings from his fathers insanity. He wanted them to be safe no matter what happened to him. He also knew that part of the reason that Uzu was there was to take him and his siblings from the village, by force if nessisary. And he loved her for it.

"Gaara what are you doing? You cant be around these people!" _Becuase your a demon. _Was left unsaid as he tired to grab the small boy. Uzu quickly pushed Gaara behind her and grasped Yoshimaru's wrist in a vise like grip and forced the man to his knees.

"Dont you dare try to take my brother away from me like that again." Uzu hissed in his ear as her eyes started glowing. The demon with in her was unusually close to the surface today.

The man grunted as she pushed him away just as Temari, and Kankuro appeared with the Kazakge and his soldiers.

"Greetings, Leaf shinobi. What do we owe the pleasure of you visit too?" The man asked smoothly, Uzu grinned at the barely contained fury he hwas hiding behind those words.

"We are here to sit in council with you, Lord Kazakage, and speak of a new treaty between our people under the new Hokage." Jiraiya said as he looked at Uzu who was still keeping Gaara from Yoshimaru's grasp.

The Kazakage blinked in suprise. A new Hokage? What had happened to the Third? "Very well, but the children must play elsewhere." The Kazakage said as he motioned for Temari and Kankuro to take Gaara and the others away.

Uzu stepped forward, "That is'nt possable sir. These children as you call them are all trained shinobi. Jounin levels, I might add and were hand chosen by the new Hokage as an excourt." she said gently. Gaara thinned his lips and waited for the reply he knew was coming.

"Very well, where is your new Hokage?" Everyone including Gaara pointed to Uzu. The Kazakage blinked, a girl was running the village! A bloody little girl with ribbons and bows in her hair! What had the third Hokage been thinking to allow a little girl to lead, when she should be making mud pies, and going to school. It was laughable.

"Oi, Gaara can I hurt him? He's starting to piss me off." Uzu said as she looked at the boy.

Gaara snickered, "I'd rather my siblings and I were'nt orphans before the end of the day, thanks."

The Kazakage narrowed his eyes at the blond. If she really was the Hokage then there had to be a reason that she had been put in such a position of power at such a young age. And what was even more intresting was that she and Gaara had taken a liking to each other. Maybe he should tell her what Gaara was? He could just imagine the crushed look on the boys face when she rejected him.

"Child, do you know what that boy you've befriended is?" The Kazakage asked, his voice sending chills down Temari, and Kankuro's spine's.

Uzu looked at the man and smirked, letting her eyes glow a bit. Startling the man into backing away a bit. "Of course I know, he's my brother after all. Why do you ask?" Uzu said to the shaking group of men and the two teens behind them.

The Kazakage shook his head and bowed respectfully to the blond girl. She was a monster like Gaara! No wonder the two had taken a liking to each other. "Welcom to our village, my lady. Please, follow me to the rooms you will be staying in." He said nervously as Uzu walked forward still holding Gaara's hand. Kakashi the sanin, and the other children falling into step behind her.

* * *

Later that evening Uzu sat across from the Kazakage with the hand two body guards that she was allowed to have. Kakashi sat on one side of her and Gaara sat on the other. She had almost laughed at the nervous expressions on the Kazakage's guards faces. It was just too funny. The man had glared briefly at his son and hissed, "Where is your alligance son?"

Gaara had smirked at the lunitic who had sired him and made his life as a child a living hell, and said, " With my sister of course." Pissing the man off further.

Gaara ate in silence, watching the small pissing contest between Uzu and the Kazakage with amusment. If the man thought he could win against her then he was sadly mistaken. She was the Demon Kage; the woman who had united the seven great shinobi nations under her rule, his father had'nt lived to see her fight against Pein, or the fight against Mandara. Gaara had live for a mojority of those fights, and knew all too well what the girl was capable of even when she was'nt in sage mode, or ascended demon mode. It had been rumored that her power was so great that she became known as the new Sage of the Six Paths. She had even unlocked a special blood line limit that had given her the orical's eyes.

Even now in her childs body she still had axcess to such great power. And she had no fear of using it if she had too. Gaara smiled at her when she looked at him for a second. She really was an amasing person, his adopted sister.

Kakashi glared at the boy for a moment when he smiled at Uzu. A sudden bout of jelousy taking root in his chest. Was the little brat trying to steal her away from him? No that could'nt be it, he was just being stupid. The two of them were friends after all. But he knew that something was up. The two had'nt felt the need to speak, they were so closely conected that they could read each other like books. But when Kakashi tried to read Uzu in a similar fashion, he always seemed to draw a blank.

He had thought that the two of them were much closer than they had been before, maybe he had been wrong in assuming so. And if he was wrong why did it hurt so damn much to see her relying on someone other than him? It was'nt like he loved her, was it?

* * *

Okay people here is the deal, I'm going to go ahead and stop this story here, and come back and write a sequel to it later on. dont worry I'll make it good.


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